Switching control for incremental stabilization of nonlinear systems via contraction theory

In this paper we present a switching control strategy to incrementally stabilize a class of nonlinear dynamical systems. Exploiting recent results on contraction analysis of switched Filippov systems derived using regularization, sufficient conditions are presented to prove incremental stability of the closed-loop system. Furthermore, based on these sufficient conditions, a design procedure is proposed to design a switched control action that is active only where the open-loop system is not sufficiently incrementally stable in order to reduce the required control effort. The design procedure to either locally or globally incrementally stabilize a dynamical system is then illustrated by means of a representative example.