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Differentially positive systems

Rodolphe Sepulchre, University of Cambridge, UK

Abstract:

The talk will  introduce differentially positive systems, as  systems whose linearization
along an arbitrary trajectory is positive. A generalization of Perron Frobenius theory is developed in this differential framework to show that the property induces a (conal) order that strongly constrains the asymptotic behavior of solutions. The results illustrate that behaviors constrained by local order properties extend beyond the well-studied class of linear positive systems and monotone systems, which both require a constant cone field and a linear state space. Joint work with Fulvio Forni.
 
Preprint on arxiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.6298
 
Presentation slides

Biography:

Rodolphe Sepulchre received the engineering degree (1990) and the Ph.D. degree (1994), both in mathematical engineering, from the Universite catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He was a BAEF fellow in 1994 and held a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1994 to 1996. He was a research associate of the FNRS at the Universite catholique de Louvain from 1995 to 1997. Since 1997, he has been professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Universite de Liege. He was department chair from 2009 to 2011. He held visiting positions at Princeton University (2002-2003) and the Ecole des Mines de Paris (2009-2010) and part-time positions at the University of Louvain (2000-2011)and at INRIA Lille Europe (2012-2013). He is now a Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College.

In 2008, he was awarded the IEEE Control Systems Society Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize. He is an IEEE fellow and an IEEE CSS distinguished lecturer since 2010.