Contraction analysis: a practical approach to nonlinear control applications

Contraction theory is a recently developed nonlinear analysis tool which may be viewed as an exact generalization of linear eigenvalues analysis. Based on a differential analysis of convergence, it addresses in effect questions of convergence and limit behavior separately, leading to significant conceptual simplification, and making it a very practical approach to solve a variety of nonlinear control problems. We detail a number of applications in the contexts of aircraft control, process control, time-delayed systems, motion primitives, and general nonlinear control.