The model reduction method we present here is applicable to linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems of the form
\( \dot{x}(t)=Ax(t) + \sum_{i=1}^d p_i(t)A_i x(t)+B_0u_0(t),\quad y(t)=Cx(t), \)
where \( A,A_i \in \mathbb R^{n\times n}, B_0 \in \mathbb R^{n\times m} \) and \( C \in \mathbb R^{p\times n}. \)
The main idea is that the structure of the above type of systems is quite similar to so-called bilinear control systems. Although belonging to the class of nonlinear control systems, the latter exhibit many features of linear time-invariant systems. In more detail, a bilinear control system is given as follows
\( \dot{x}(t)=Ax(t) + \sum_{i=1}^m N_i x(t) u_i(t) + B u(t), \)
where \( A,N \in \mathbb R^{n\times n}, B \in \mathbb R^{n\times m} \) and \( C \in \mathbb R^{p\times n}. \)
As one can see, there seems to be a close connection between LPV and bilinear systems which may be advantageous. To be more precise, we can interpret LPV systems as special bilinear system by simply setting
\( \tilde{A}=A,\;\; \tilde{N}_i=0,\;\;i=1,\dots,m,\;\; \tilde{N}_i=A_i,\;\; i=m+1,\dots,m+d, \;\; \tilde{B}=\begin{bmatrix} B_0 & 0\end{bmatrix},\;\; \tilde{C}=C, \;\; \tilde{u}=\begin{bmatrix} u_0 \\ p_1(t) \\ \vdots \\ p_d(t)\end{bmatrix} . \)
It is important to note that in this way the parameter dependency has been hidden in the structure of a bilinear systems and if we use a bilinear model reduction method, we automatically end up with a structure-preserving model reduction method for LPV systems as well.