English

Fundamental limitations of monotonic tracking systems

Optimization and Control 2026-05-12 v2 Systems and Control Systems and Control

Abstract

We consider the monotonic tracking control problem for continuous-time single-input single-output linear systems using output-feedback linear controllers in this paper. We provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for this problem to be solvable and expose its fundamental limitations: the exact feasible locations of the plant zeros, the minimum controller order possible, and the fastest decay rate achievable for the closed-loop system. The relationship between these bounds is explained by a simple geometric shape for plants with a pair of complex-conjugate zeros.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.08844,
  title  = {Fundamental limitations of monotonic tracking systems},
  author = {Hamed Taghavian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.08844},
  year   = {2026}
}