Data-driven stabilization of nonlinear systems via descriptor embedding

We introduce the notion of descriptor embedding for nonlinear systems and use it for the data-driven design of stabilizing controllers. Specifically, we provide sufficient data-dependent LMI conditions which, if feasible, return a stabilizing nonlinear controller of the form $u=K(x)Z(x)$ where $K(x)$ belongs to a polytope and $Z$ is a user-defined function. The proposed method is then extended to account for the presence of uncertainties and noisy data. Furthermore, a method to estimate the resulting region of attraction is given using only data. Simulation examples are used to illustrate the results and compare them to existing methods from the literature.