Reliable stabilization using a multi-controller configuration

Given a plant P, we consider the problem of designing a pair of controllers C1 and C2 such that their sum stabilizes P, and in addition, each of them also stabilizes P should the other one fail. This is referred to as the reliable stabilization problem. It is shown that every strongly stabilizable plant can be reliably stabilized; moreover, one of the two controllers can be specified arbitrarily, subject only to the constraint that it should be stable. The stabilization technique is extended to reliable regulation.