Numerically Reliable Brunovsky Transformations
Abstract
The Brunovsky canonical form provides sparse structural representations that are beneficial for computational optimal control, yet existing methods fail to compute it reliably. We propose a technique that produces Brunovsky transformations with substantially lower construction errors and improved conditioning. A controllable linear system is first reduced to the staircase form via an orthogonal similarity transformation. We then derive a simple linear parametrization of the transformations yielding the unique Brunovsky form. Numerical stability is further enhanced by applying a deadbeat gain before computing system matrix powers and by optimizing the linear parameters to minimize condition numbers.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.05910,
title = {Numerically Reliable Brunovsky Transformations},
author = {Shaohui Yang and Colin N. Jones},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.05910},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Accepted by the IFAC World Congress 2026 as a regular paper. Compared with the official final version (six pages), this version has more remarks and examples