Title: Strong structural controllability of structured networks with MIMO node systems

Authors: Yanting Ni; Jiajia Jia; Xuyang Lou

Addresses: School of IoT Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China ' School of Information and Control Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China ' School of IoT Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of strong structural controllability of structured networks with multi-input multi-output (MIMO) node systems. A necessary and sufficient condition is firstly presented for strong structural controllability. The condition is somewhat restrictive and computationally expensive, especially for large-scale networks with high-dimensional state spaces. To overcome this computational complexity, several necessary algebraic conditions are established from the perspectives of both the node dynamics and the structured interconnection laws, respectively. Furthermore, by utilising the so-called weakly colour change rule, a graph-theoretic method is provided to assess the condition from the perspective of the structured interconnection laws.

Keywords: strong structural controllability; networks of autonomous systems; multi-input multi-output system; MIMO system.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2025.147937

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2025 Vol.46 No.1, pp.12 - 20

Received: 19 Oct 2023
Accepted: 17 Jul 2024
Published online: 11 Aug 2025 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article