A continuous-time fundamental lemma and its application in data-driven optimal control

Data-driven control of discrete-time and continuous-time systems is of tremendous research interest. In this paper, we explore data-driven optimal control of continuous-time linear systems using input–output data. Based on a density result, we rigorously derive error bounds for finite-order polynomial approximations of elements of the system behavior. To this end, we leverage a link between latent variables and flat outputs of controllable systems. Combined with a continuous-time counterpart of Willems et al.’s fundamental lemma, we characterize the suboptimality resulting from polynomial approximations in data-driven linear–quadratic optimal control. Finally, we draw upon a numerical example to illustrate our results.