Graph-theoretic characterisations of structural controllability for multi-agent system with switching topology
Xiaomeng Liu, Hai Lin, Ben M. Chen · International Journal of Control · 2012
This article 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 generalisation of the traditional controllability concept for dynamical systems, and purely based on the communication topologies among agents. The main contributions of this article are graph-theoretic characterisations 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, this article concludes with several illustrative examples and discussions of the results and future work.