Exponential stability of a networked flight control system with large-bounded successive packet-dropouts

In this paper, we focus on the modeling and stability analysis of a networked flight control system (NFCS) subject to constant network-induced delay and bounded packet-dropouts. For stability analysis, the NFCS is modeled as a discrete-time switched system with subsystems switching according to the number of successive packet-dropouts (SPDs). By the common Lyapunov function method, a criterion is established for the exponential stability of the NFCS under arbitrary packet-dropout sequences. By using the average dwell time method, an alleviated criterion is developed such that the packet-dropout bound can be enlarged even to introduce unstable subsystems. Application to an example NFCS is performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.