Local stability analysis using simulations and sum-of-squares programming

The problem of computing bounds on the region-of-attraction for systems with polynomial vector fields is considered. Invariant subsets of the region-of-attraction are characterized as sublevel sets of Lyapunov functions. Finite-dimensional polynomial parametrizations for Lyapunov functions are used. A methodology utilizing information from simulations to generate Lyapunov function candidates satisfying necessary conditions for bilinear constraints is proposed. The suitability of Lyapunov function candidates is assessed solving linear sum-of-squares optimization problems. Qualified candidates are used to compute invariant subsets of the region-of-attraction and to initialize various bilinear search strategies for further optimization. We illustrate the method on small examples from the literature and several control oriented systems.