Using SOS and Sublevel Set Volume Minimization for Estimation of Forward Reachable Sets

Abstract: In this paper we propose a convex Sum-of-Squares optimization problem for finding outer approximations of forward reachable sets for nonlinear uncertain Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE's) with either (or both) L2 or point-wise bounded input disturbances. To make our approximations tight we seek to minimize the volume of our approximation set. Our approach to volume minimization is based on the use of a convex determinant-like objective function. We provide several numerical examples including the Lorenz system and the Van der Pol oscillator.