Abstract
For piecewise smooth systems we describe mechanisms to obtain a similar reduction to a lower dimensional system as has been achieved for smooth systems via the center manifold approach. It turns out that for nonsmooth systems there are invariant quantities as well which can be used for a bifurcation analysis but the form of the quantities is more complicated. The approximation by piecewise linear systems (PWLS) provides a useful concept. In the case of PWLS, the invariant sets are given as invariant cones. For nonlinear perturbations of PWLS the invariant sets are deformations of those cones. The generation of invariant manifolds and a bifurcation analysis establishing periodic orbits are demonstrated; also an example for which multiple cones exist is provided. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.