This paper solves the rational noncommutative analogue of Hilbert’s 17th problem: if a noncommutative rational function is positive semidefinite on all tuples of Hermitian matrices in its domain, then it is a sum of Hermitian squares of noncommutative rational functions. This result is a generalisation and culmination of earlier positivity certificates for noncommutative polynomials or rational functions without Hermitian singularities. More generally, a rational Positivstellensatz for free spectrahedra is given: a noncommutative rational function is positive semidefinite or undefined at every matricial solution of a linear matrix inequality $L\succeq 0$ if and only if it belongs to the rational quadratic module generated by L. The essential intermediate step toward this Positivstellensatz for functions with singularities is an extension theorem for invertible evaluations of linear matrix pencils.

This paper reports an extended state observer (ESO)-based robust dynamic surface control (DSC) method for triaxial MEMS gyroscope applications. An ESO with non-linear gain function is designed to estimate both velocity and disturbance vectors of the gyroscope dynamics via measured position signals. Using the sector-bounded property of the non-linear gain function, the design of an $\mathcal{L}_2$-robust ESO is phrased as a convex optimization problem in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Next, by using the estimated velocity and disturbance, a certainty equivalence tracking controller is designed based on DSC. To achieve an improved robustness and to remove static steady-state tracking errors, new non-linear integral error surfaces are incorporated into the DSC. Based on the energy-to-peak ($\mathcal{L}_2$-$\mathcal{L}_\infty$) performance criterion, a finite number of LMIs are derived to obtain the DSC gains. In order to prevent amplification of the measurement noise in the DSC error dynamics, a multi-objective convex optimization problem, which guarantees a prescribed $\mathcal{L}_2$-$\mathcal{L}_\infty$ performance bound, is considered. Finally, the efficacy of the proposed control method is illustrated by detailed software simulations.

This paper studies the problem of delay-dependent robust H∞ control for singular systems with multiple delays. Based on a Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional approach, an improved delay-dependent bounded real lemma (BRL) for singular time-delay systems is established without using any of the model transformations and bounding techniques on the cross product terms. Then, by applying the obtained BRL, a delay-dependent condition for the existence of a robust state feedback controller, which guarantees that the closed-loop system is regular, impulse free, robustly stable and satisfies a prescribed H∞ performance index, is proposed in terms of a nonlinear matrix inequality. The explicit expression for the H∞ controller is designed by using linear matrix inequalities and the cone complementarity iterative linearization algorithm. Numerical examples are also given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.