Controllability Metrics, Limitations and Algorithms for Complex Networks

This paper studies the problem of controlling complex networks, i.e., the joint problem of selecting a set of control nodes and of designing a control input to steer a network to a target state. For this problem, 1) we propose a metric to quantify the difficulty of the control problem as a function of the required control energy, 2) we derive bounds based on the system dynamics (network topology and weights) to characterize the tradeoff between the control energy and the number of control nodes, and 3) we propose an open-loop control strategy with performance guarantees. In our strategy, we select control nodes by relying on network partitioning, and we design the control input by leveraging optimal and…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 1135819
• AR
  Army Research Office

  Awards: W911NF-11-1-0092, W911NF, W911NF-11