527 research outputs found
Controllability of a swarm of topologically interacting autonomous agents
Controllability of complex networks has been the focal point of many recent
studies in the field of complexity. These landmark advances shed a new light on
the dynamics of natural and technological complex systems. Here, we analyze the
controllability of a swarm of autonomous self-propelled agents having a
topological neighborhood of interactions, applying the analytical tools
developed for the study of the controllability of arbitrary complex directed
networks. To this aim we thoroughly investigate the structural properties of
the swarm signaling network which is the information transfer channel
underpinning the dynamics of agents in the physical space. Our results show
that with 6 or 7 topological neighbors, every agent not only affects, but is
also affected by all other agents within the group. More importantly, still
with 6 or 7 topological neighbors, each agent is capable of full control over
all other agents. This finding is yet another argument justifying the
particular value of the number of topological neighbors observed in field
observations with flocks of starlings.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1401.259
Structural Controllability of Switched Continuous and Discrete Time Linear Systems
This paper explores the structural controllability of switched continuous and
discrete time linear systems. It identifies a gap in the proof for a pivotal
criterion for structural controllability of switched continuous time systems in
the literature. To address this void, we develop novel graph-theoretic
concepts, such as multi-layer dynamic graphs, generalized stems/buds, and
generalized cactus configurations, and based on them, provide a comprehensive
proof for this criterion. Our approach also induces a new, generalized cactus
based graph-theoretic criterion for structural controllability. This not only
extends Lin's cactus-based graph-theoretic condition to switched systems for
the first time, but also provides a lower bound for the generic dimension of
controllable subspaces (which is conjectured to be exact). Finally, we present
extensions to reversible switched discrete-time systems, which lead to not only
a simplified necessary and sufficient condition for structural controllability,
but also the determination of the generic dimension of controllable subspaces.Comment: Submitted to a journa
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