On the Controllability of Matrix-weighted Networks

Abstract: This letter examines the controllability of consensus dynamics on matrix-weighed networks from a graph-theoretic perspective. Unlike the scalar-weighted networks, the rank of weight matrix introduces additional intricacies into characterizing the dimension of controllable subspace for such networks. Specifically, we investigate how the definiteness of weight matrices influences the dimension of the controllable subspace. In this direction, graph-theoretic characterizations of the lower and upper bounds on the dimension of the controllable subspace are provided by employing, respectively, distance partition and almost equitable partition of matrix-weighted networks. Furthermore, the structure of an uncontrollable input for such networks is examined. Examples are then provided to demonstrate the theoretical results.