Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of the Franklin Institute 350 (2013) 1189–1205 Dissipative performance control with output regulation for continuous-time descriptor systems Yu Feng a,b,n , Mohamed Yagoubi c , Philippe Chevrel c a Department of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, 288 Liuhe Road, Hangzhou, 310032 Zhejiang, PR China b Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, N9B 3P4 c LUNAM Universit  e, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, IRCCyN UMR CNRS 6597 (Institut de Recherche en Communications et Cybern  etique de Nantes), 4, rue Alfred Kastler, 44307 Nantes, France Received 30 July 2012; received in revised form 16 February 2013; accepted 23 February 2013 Available online 7 March 2013 Abstract This paper is concerned with the problem of dissipative performance control under output regulation constraints for continuous-time descriptor systems. In this problem, an output is to be regulated asymptotically with the presence of an infinite-energy exo-system, while a specific dissipative performance from a finite external disturbance to a tracking error has also to be satisfied. Based on a generalized Sylvester equation, the asymptotical regulation objective is achieved and a specific structure of the resulting controller is deduced. Using this structure, the solution to the defined multi-objective control problem is characterized in terms of a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). & 2013 The Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Over recent decades, there has been a visibly growing interest in the research of descriptor systems. This is mainly due to their extensive applications in large-scale systems networks, circuits, economic systems, chemical processes, robotics, aircraft modeling, and other critical fields [1, 2]. A number of control issues have been successfully extended to descriptor systems and the related results have been reported, for instance, in [1–9] and the references therein. www.elsevier.com/locate/jfranklin 0016-0032/$32.00 & 2013 The Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfranklin.2013.02.014 n Corresponding author at: Department of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, 288 Liuhe Road, Hangzhou, 310032 Zhejiang, PR China. Tel.: þ86 57185290601. E-mail addresses: yfeng@zjut.edu.cn (Y. Feng), myagoubi@mines-nantes.fr (M. Yagoubi), pchevrel@mines-nantes.fr (P. Chevrel).