Minimal Inputs/Outputs for Subsystems in a Networked System

Abstract: Minimal input/output selection is investigated in this paper for each subsystem of a networked system. Some novel sufficient conditions are derived respectively for the controllability and observability of a networked system, as well as some necessary conditions. These conditions only depend separately on parameters of each subsystem and its in/out-degrees. It is proven that in order to be able to construct a controllable/observable networked system, it is necessary and sufficient that each subsystem is controllable/observable. In addition, both sparse and dense subsystem connections are helpful in making the whole system controllable/observable. An explicit formula is given for the smallest number of inputs/outputs for each subsystem required to guarantee controllability/observability of the whole system.