Stability and stabilization of discrete-time linear compartmental switched systems via Markov chains

The stabilizing switching signal design of discrete-time linear compartmental switched systems (DT-LCSSs) has been heretofore unsolved. It has been proven that a DT-LCSS is stabilizable if and only if it is stabilizable by a periodic switching signal. However, it still needs to be determined whether the period of a stabilizing switching signal can be confined within a bound. Moreover, the existing design method for stabilizing periodic switching signals requires the diagonal entries of system matrices of all subsystems to be strictly positive. In this study, we propose a novel approach to solve this problem completely. We construct a discrete-time Markov chain for a given DT-LCSS, termed the associated Markov chain, and prove the equivalence of stability and stabilizability between the DT-LCSS and the associated Markov chain. Based on this, verifiable necessary and sufficient conditions for stability and stabilizability are derived. Especially, the period of a stabilizing switching signal for an $n$-dimensional DT-LCSS can always be chosen within the bound $n^2-n+1$. We propose a state-independent stabilizing switching signal design method for general stabilizable DT-LCSSs. We also prove the equivalence between stabilizability by state-independent switching laws and stabilizability by state-dependent switching laws. A state-dependent global stabilizing switching signal design method is also proposed. Additionally, the proposed results are applied to the consensus analysis of discrete-time leader–follower multi-agent systems with switching communication digraphs. The effectiveness of the theoretical results is demonstrated by examples.