1,554 research outputs found
Joint Centrality Distinguishes Optimal Leaders in Noisy Networks
We study the performance of a network of agents tasked with tracking an
external unknown signal in the presence of stochastic disturbances and under
the condition that only a limited subset of agents, known as leaders, can
measure the signal directly. We investigate the optimal leader selection
problem for a prescribed maximum number of leaders, where the optimal leader
set minimizes total system error defined as steady-state variance about the
external signal. In contrast to previously established greedy algorithms for
optimal leader selection, our results rely on an expression of total system
error in terms of properties of the underlying network graph. We demonstrate
that the performance of any given set of leaders depends on their influence as
determined by a new graph measure of centrality of a set. We define the of a set of nodes in a network graph such that a leader set with
maximal joint centrality is an optimal leader set. In the case of a single
leader, we prove that the optimal leader is the node with maximal information
centrality. In the case of multiple leaders, we show that the nodes in the
optimal leader set balance high information centrality with a coverage of the
graph. For special cases of graphs, we solve explicitly for optimal leader
sets. We illustrate with examples.Comment: Conditionally accepted to IEEE TCN
On Submodularity and Controllability in Complex Dynamical Networks
Controllability and observability have long been recognized as fundamental
structural properties of dynamical systems, but have recently seen renewed
interest in the context of large, complex networks of dynamical systems. A
basic problem is sensor and actuator placement: choose a subset from a finite
set of possible placements to optimize some real-valued controllability and
observability metrics of the network. Surprisingly little is known about the
structure of such combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we show
that several important classes of metrics based on the controllability and
observability Gramians have a strong structural property that allows for either
efficient global optimization or an approximation guarantee by using a simple
greedy heuristic for their maximization. In particular, the mapping from
possible placements to several scalar functions of the associated Gramian is
either a modular or submodular set function. The results are illustrated on
randomly generated systems and on a problem of power electronic actuator
placement in a model of the European power grid.Comment: Original arXiv version of IEEE Transactions on Control of Network
Systems paper (Volume 3, Issue 1), with a addendum (located in the ancillary
documents) that explains an error in a proof of the original paper and
provides a counterexample to the corresponding resul
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