Sufficient and Necessary Conditions on Finite-Time Tracking

This paper is concerned with the finite-time tracking for linear and nonlinear systems, with respect to the reference signal (to be tracked by the system state) obeying some uniformity. Before the control design of finite-time tracking, an interesting and basic problem is whether or not such control exists for the system concerned. This paper aims to this basic problem. First, the sufficient and necessary conditions on finite-time tracking are proposed for linear systems. Such conditions are then extended to those for affine nonlinear systems. It should be pointed out that the sufficient and necessary conditions proposed in the paper essentially reveal the relationship between the structure of the linear/nonlinear systems and the existence of the finite-time tracking control.