A dual approach to input/output variance constrained control problem

An optimal controller, e.g. LQG controller, may not be realistic in the sense that the required control power may not be achieved by existing actuators, and the measured output is not satisfactory. To be realistic, the controller should meet such constraints as sensor or actuator limitation, performance limit, etc. In this paper, the lnput/Output Variance Constrained (IOVC) control problem will be considered from the viewpoint of mathematical programming. A dual version shall be developed to solve the IOVC control problem, whose objective is to find a stabilizing control law attaining a minimum value of a quadratic cost function subject to the inequality constraint on each input and output variance for a stabilizable and detectable plant. One approach to the constrained optimization problem is to use the Kuhn-Tucker necessary conditions for the optimality and to seek an optimal point by an iterative algorithm. However, since the algorithm uses only the necessary conditions, the convergent point may not be optimal solution. Our algorithm will guarantee a sufficiency.