In this paper we address the actuator/sensor allocation problem for linear
time invariant (LTI) systems. Given the structure of an autonomous linear
dynamical system, the goal is to design the structure of the input matrix
(commonly denoted by B) such that the system is structurally controllable
with the restriction that each input be dedicated, i.e., it can only control
directly a single state variable. We provide a methodology that addresses this
design question: specifically, we determine the minimum number of dedicated
inputs required to ensure such structural controllability, and characterize,
and characterizes all (when not unique) possible configurations of the
\emph{minimal} input matrix B. Furthermore, we show that the proposed
solution methodology incurs \emph{polynomial complexity} in the number of state
variables. By duality, the solution methodology may be readily extended to the
structural design of the corresponding minimal output matrix (commonly denoted
by C) that ensures structural observability.Comment: 8 pages, submitted for publicatio
