Xiaomeng Liu

Xiaomeng Liu, Hai Lin, Ben M. Chen

This paper studies the structural controllability of a class of uncertain switched linear systems, where the parameters of subsystems state matrices are either unknown or zero. The structural controllability is a generalization of the traditional controllability concept for dynamical systems, and purely based on the interconnection relation between the state variables and inputs through non-zero elements in the state matrices. In order to illustrate such a relationship, two kinds of graphic representations of switched linear systems are proposed, based on which graph theory based necessary and sufficient characterizations of the structural controllability for switched linear systems are presented. Finally, the paper concludes with discussions on the results and future work.

Xiaomeng Liu, Hai Lin, Ben M. Chen

This paper considers the controllability problem for multi-agent systems. In particular, the structural controllability of multi-agent systems under switching topologies is investigated. The structural controllability of multi-agent systems is a generalization of the traditional controllability concept for dynamical systems, and purely based on the communication topologies among agents. The main contributions of the paper are graph-theoretic characterizations of the structural controllability for multi-agent systems. It turns out that the multi-agent system with switching topology is structurally controllable if and only if the union graph G of the underlying communication topologies is connected (single leader) or leader-follower connected (multi-leader). Finally, the paper concludes with several illustrative examples and discussions of the results and future work.