Robustness of funnel control in the gap metric

For m-input, m-output, finite-dimensional, linear systems satisfying the assumptions (i) minimum phase, (ii) relative degree one and (iii) positive high-frequency gain), the funnel controller achieves output regulation in the following sense: all states of the closed-loop system are bounded and, most importantly, transient behaviour of the tracking error is ensured such that its evolution remains in a performance funnel with prespecified boundary. As opposed to classical adaptive high-gain output feedback, system identification or internal model is not invoked and the gain is not monotone. Invoking the conceptual framework of the nonlinear gap metric we show that the funnel controller is robust in the following sense: the funnel controller copes with bounded input and output disturbances and, more importantly, it may even be applied to a system not satisfying any of the classical conditions (i)-(iii) as long as the initial conditions and the disturbances are “small” and the system is “close” (in terms of a “small” gap) to a system satisfying (i)-(iii).