arXiv subjects

Islam Boussaada

Publications and source records attributed to Islam Boussaada.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Delay is Necessary for a Potential to Achieve Exponential Stabilization of the Wave Equation via Internal Control

In this work, we study the stabilization of the wave equation using an internal delayed potential. Interestingly, the stabilization mechanism is entirely induced by the delay, since exponential stabilization cannot be achieved in its absence. We first prove the well-posedness of the associated initial--boundary value problem. Then, thanks to the parametric analysis of the corresponding quasipolynomial, we design a delayed po tential feedback law which, together with appropriate initial conditions, ensures the exponential decay rate for the resulting closed-loop system. The control of the transverse vibration of a string illustrates the effectiveness of the result.

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arXiv2026

A mathematical framework for time-delay reservoir computing analysis

Reservoir computing is a well-established approach for processing data with a much lower complexity compared to traditional neural networks. Despite two decades of experimental progress, the core properties of reservoir computing (namely separation, robustness, and fading memory) still lack rigorous mathematical foundations. This paper addresses this gap by providing a control-theoretic framework for the analysis of time-delay-based reservoir computers. We introduce formal definitions of the separation property and fading memory in terms of functional norms, and establish their connection to well-known stability notions for time-delay systems as incremental input-to-state stability. For a class of linear reservoirs, we derive an explicit lower bound for the separation distance via Fourier analysis, offering a computable criterion for reservoir design. Numerical results on the NARMA10 benchmark and continuous-time system prediction validate the approach with a minimal digital implementation.

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arXiv2025

Optimal Control of an Interconnected SDE -Parabolic PDE System

In this paper, we design a controller for an interconnected system where a linear Stochastic Differential Equation (SDE) is actuated through a linear parabolic heat equation. These dynamics arise in various applications, such as coupled heat transfer systems and chemical reaction processes that are subject to disturbances. Our goal is to develop a computational method for approximating the controller that minimizes a quadratic cost associated with the state of the SDE component. To achieve this, we first perform a change of variables to shift the actuation inside the PDE domain and reformulate the system as a linear Stochastic Partial Differential Equation (SPDE). We use a spectral approximation of the Laplacian operator to discretize the coupled dynamics into a finite-dimensional SDE and compute the optimal control for this approximated system. The resulting control serves as an approximation of the optimal control for the original system. We then establish the convergence of the approximated optimal control and the corresponding closed-loop dynamics to their infinite-dimensional counterparts. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of our approach.

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arXiv2025

Stabilization and Optimal Control of an Interconnected $n + m$ Hetero-directional Hyperbolic PDE-SDE System

In this paper, we design a controller for an interconnected system composed of a linear Stochastic Differential Equation (SDE) controlled through a linear hetero-directional hyperbolic Partial Differential Equation (PDE). Our objective is to steer the coupled system to a desired final state on average, while keeping the variance-in-time as small as possible, improving robustness to disturbances. By employing backstepping techniques, we decouple the original PDE, reformulating the system as an input delayed SDE with a stochastic drift. We first establish a controllability result, shading light on lower bounds for the variance. This shows that the system can never improve variance below strict structural limits. Under standard controllability conditions, we then design a controller that drives the mean of the states while keeping the variance bounded. Finally, we analyze the optimal control problem of variance minimization along the entire trajectory. Under additional controllability assumptions, we prove that the optimal control can achieve any variance level above the fundamental structural limit.

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arXiv2024

A novel necessary and sufficient condition for the stability of $2\times 2$ first-order linear hyperbolic systems

In this paper, we establish a necessary and sufficient stability condition for a class of two coupled first-order linear hyperbolic partial differential equations. Through a backstepping transform, the problem is reformulated as a stability problem for an integral difference equation, that is, a difference equation with distributed delay. Building upon a St\'ep\'an--Hassard argument variation theorem originally designed for time-delay systems of retarded type, we then introduce a theorem that counts the number of unstable roots of our integral difference equation. This leads to the expected necessary and sufficient stability criterion for the system of first-order linear hyperbolic partial differential equations. Finally, we validate our theoretical findings through simulations.

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arXiv2024

Prescribed exponential stabilization of scalar neutral differential equations: Application to neural control

This paper presents a control-oriented delay-based modeling approach for the exponential stabilization of a scalar neutral functional differential equation, which is then applied to the local exponential stabilization of a one-layer neural network of Hopfield type with delayed feedback. The proposed approach utilizes a recently developed partial pole placement method for linear functional differential equations, leveraging the coexistence of real spectral values to explicitly prescribe the exponential decay of the closed-loop solution. While a delayed proportional (P) feedback control may achieve stabilization, it requires higher gains and only allows for a shorter maximum delay compared to the proportional-derivative (PD) feedback control presented in this work. The framework provides a practical illustration of the stabilization strategy, improving upon previous literature results that characterize the solution's exponential decay for simple real spectral values. This approach enhances neural stability in cases where the inherent dynamics are stable and offers a method to achieve local exponential stabilization with a prescribed decay rate when the inherent dynamics are unstable.

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arXiv2024

Stabilization and Optimal Control of Interconnected SDE - Scalar PDE System

In this paper, we design a controller for an interconnected system consisting of a linear Stochastic Differential Equation (SDE) actuated through a linear hyperbolic Partial Differential Equation (PDE). Our approach aims to minimize the variance of the state of the SDE component. We leverage a backstepping technique to transform the original PDE into an uncoupled stochastic PDE. As such, we reformulate our initial problem as the control of a delayed SDE with a non-deterministic drift. Under standard controllability assumptions, we design a controller steering the mean of the states to zero while keeping its covariance bounded. As final step, we address the optimal control of the delayed SDE employing Artstein's transformation and Linear Quadratic stochastic control techniques.

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arXiv2023

Mean-Covariance Steering of a Linear Stochastic System with Input Delay and Additive Noise

In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to solve the (mean-covariance) steering problem for a fairly general class of linear continuous-time stochastic systems subject to input delays. Specifically, we aim at steering delayed linear stochastic differential equations to a final desired random variable with given mean and covariance. We first establish a controllability result for these control systems, revealing the existence of a lower bound under which the covariance of the control system can not be steered. This structural threshold covariance stems from a unique combined effect due to stochastic diffusions and delays. Next, we propose a numerically cheap approach to reach any neighbor of this threshold covariance in finite time. Via an optimal control-based strategy, we enhance the aforementioned approach to keep the system covariance small at will in the whole control horizon. Under some additional assumptions on the dynamics, we give theoretical guarantees on the efficiency of our method. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to ground our theoretical findings, showcasing the ability of our methods in optimally approaching the covariance threshold.

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arXiv2022

MID Property for Delay Systems: Insights on Spectral Values with Intermediate Multiplicity

This paper focuses on the problem of multiplicity induced dominancy (MID) for a class of linear time-invariant systems represented by delay-differential equations. If the problem of generic MID was characterized in terms of properties of the roots of Kummer hypergeometric functions, the case of intermediate MID is still an open problem. The aim of this paper is to address such a problem by using the Green--Hille transformation for characterizing the distribution of the nonasymptotic zeros of linear combinations of Kummer functions. An illustrative example completes the presentation and shows the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

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arXiv2022

Pad\'e Approximation and Hypergeometric Functions: A Missing Link with the Spectrum of Delay-Differential Equations

It is well known that rational approximation theory involves degenerate hypergeometric functions and, in particular, the Pad\'e approximation of the exponential function is closely related to Kummer hypergeometric functions. Recently, in the context of the study of the exponential stability of the trivial solution of delay-differential equations, a new link between the degenerate hypergeometric function and the zeros distribution of the characteristic function associated with linear delay-differential equations was emphasized. Such a link allowed the characterization of a property of time-delay systems known as multiplicity-induced-dominancy (MID), which opened a new direction in designing low-complexity controllers for time-delay systems by using a partial pole placement idea. Thanks to their relations to hypergeometric functions, we explore in this paper links between the spectrum of delay-differential equations and Pad\'e approximations of the exponential function. This note exploits and further comments recent results from [I. Boussaada, G. Mazanti and S-I. Niculescu. 2022, Comptes Rendus. Math\'ematique, arXiv:2107.11363] and [I. Boussaada, G. Mazanti and S-I. Niculescu. 2022, Bulletin des Sciences Math\'ematiques, arXiv:2106.03378].

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arXiv2022

New Features of P3$\delta$ Software. Insights and Demos

This paper presents the software entitled "Partial Pole Placement via Delay Action", or "P3$\delta$" for short. P3$\delta$ is a Python software with a friendly user interface for the design of parametric stabilizing feedback laws with time-delays for dynamical systems. After recalling the theoretical foundation of the so-called "Partial Pole Placement" methodology we propose as well the main features of the current version of P3$\delta$. We illustrate its use in feedback stabilization of several control systems operating under time delays.

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arXiv2022

On the pole placement of scalar linear delay systems with two delays

This paper concerns some spectral properties of the scalar dynamical system defined by a linear delay-differential equation with two positive delays. More precisely, the existing links between the delays and the maximal multiplicity of the characteristic roots are explored, as well as the dominancy of such roots compared with the spectrum localization. As a by-product of the analysis, the pole placement issue is revisited with more emphasis on the role of the delays as control parameters in defining a partial pole placement guaranteeing the closed-loop stability with an appropriate decay rate of the corresponding dynamical system.

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arXiv2021

Stability, Delays and Multiple Characteristic Roots in Dynamical Systems: A Guided Tour

This paper presents a guided tour of some specific problems encountered in the stability analysis of linear dynamical systems including delays in their systems' representation. More precisely, we will address the characterization of multiple roots of the corresponding characteristic function with a particular emphasis on the way these roots are affected by the system's parameters and the way that they can be used to control. The paper covers several approaches (perturbation techniques, hypergeometric functions) leading to some methods and criteria (frequency-sweeping, multiplicity-induced-dominancy) that can be implemented (software toolboxes) for analyzing the qualitative and quantitative properties induced by the delays and other parameters on the system's dynamics. A particular attention will be paid to the so-called partial pole placement method based on the multiplicity-induced-dominancy property. The presentation is as simple as possible, focusing more on the main intuitive ideas and appropriate mathematical reasoning by analogy in the presentation of the theoretical results as well as their potential use in practical applications. Illustrative examples complete the paper.

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arXiv2021

Insights into the multiplicity-induced-dominancy for scalar delay-differential equations with two delays

It has been observed in recent works that, for several classes of linear time-invariant time-delay systems of retarded or neutral type with a single delay, if a root of its characteristic equation attains its maximal multiplicity, then this root is the rightmost spectral value, and hence it determines the exponential behavior of the system, a property usually referred to as multiplicity-induced-dominancy (MID). In this paper, we investigate the MID property for one of the simplest cases of systems with two delays, a scalar delay-differential equation of first order with two delayed terms of order zero. We discuss the standard approach based on the argument principle for establishing the MID property for single-delay systems and some of its limitations in the case of our simple system with two delays, before proposing a technique based on crossing imaginary roots that allows to conclude that the MID property holds in our setting.

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arXiv2021

New Features of P3$δ$ software: Partial Pole Placement via Delay Action

This paper presents the software Partial Pole Placement via Delay Action, or P3$δ$ for short. P3$δ$ is a Python software with a friendly user interface for the design of parametric stabilizing feedback laws with time-delays, thanks to two properties of the distribution of quasipolynomials' zeros, called multiplicity-induced-dominancy and coexisting real roots-induced-dominancy. After recalling recent theoretical results on these properties and their use for the feedback stabilization of control systems operating under time delays, the paper presents the main features of the current version of P3$δ$. We detail, in particular, the assignable admissible region (the set of allowable dominant roots and the corresponding delay), which helps the user in the choice of input information, allowing a reliable stabilizing delayed feedback. We also present the newly set online version of P3$δ$.

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arXiv2021

The generic multiplicity-induced-dominancy property from retarded to neutral delay-differential equations: When delay-systems characteristics meet the zeros of Kummer functions

In this paper, which is a direct continuation and generalization of the recent works by the authors [https://doi.org/10.1051/cocv/2019073, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jde.2021.03.003], we show the validity of the generic multiplicity-induced-dominancy property for a general class of linear functional differential equations with a single delay, including the retarded as well as the neutral cases. The result is based on an appropriate integral representation of the corresponding characteristic quasipolynomial functions involving some appropriate degenerate hypergeometric functions.

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arXiv2021

Some Remarks on the Location of Non-Asymptotic Zeros of Whittaker and Kummer Hypergeometric Functions

This paper focuses on the location of the non-asymptotic zeros of Whittaker and Kummer confluent hypergeometric functions. Based on a technique by E. Hille for the analysis of solutions of some second-order ordinary differential equations, we characterize the sign of the real part of zeros of Whittaker and Kummer functions and provide estimates on the regions of the complex plane where those zeros can be located. Our main result is a correction of a previous statement by G. E. Tsvetkov whose propagation has induced mistakes in the literature. In particular, we review some results of E. B. Saff and R. S. Varga on the error of Pad{\'e}'s rational approximation of the exponential function, which are based on the latter.

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arXiv2020

Partial Pole Placement via Delay Action: A Python Software for Delayed Feedback Stabilizing Design

This paper presents a new Python software for the parametric design of stabilizing feedback laws with time delays, called Partial Pole Placement via Delay Action (P3$δ$). After an introduction recalling recent theoretical results on the multiplicity-induced-dominancy (MID) and coexisting real roots-induced-dominancy (CRRID) properties and their use for the feedback stabilization of control systems operating under time delays, the paper presents the current version of P3$δ$, which relies on the MID property to compute delayed stabilizing feedback laws for scalar differential equations with a single delay. We detail in particular its graphical user interface (GUI), which allows the user to input the necessary information and obtain the results of the analysis done by the software. These results include the parameters stabilizing the closed-loop system, graphical representations of the spectrum of the closed-loop system, simulations of solutions in the time domain, and a sensitivity analysis with respect to uncertain delays.

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