State-variable models are made of first-order differential equations, allowing linear algebra to be used to solve problems. They are formed by defining higher-order derivatives as a cascade of first-order derivatives.
Generally, we have various time derivatives of some function :
We then use:
Examples
Mass-Spring-Damper
An example is the typical mass-spring-damper system:
We define:
Then, we can re-write the original equation as:
Thus, we’ve reduced our original 2nd-order equation to two first-order equations:
This is our state-variable model. The variables and are the state variables.
3rd Order System
A third order system:
Re-arrange so that highest order variable is isolated:
Since this is 3rd order, we expect three 1st-order ODEs to describe the system.
We define
Now, our state-variable model is::
In vector-matrix form, we can write:
The output can also be described in matrix form:
Standard State-Variable Model
The standard form of a state variable model is given by the state equation and the output equation.
State equation:
where:
- is the derivative of the state vector,
- is the system/state matrix,
- is the state vector,
- is the input/control matrix,
- is the input vector,
Essentially, and are column vectors containing the state variables and the inputs, if any.
Output Equation
Output equation:
where:
- is the output vector,
- is the state output matrix,
- is the state vector,
- is the control output,
- is the input vector,
Note that in general.