Controllability of a Class of Heterogeneous Networked Systems

This paper examines the controllability of a class of heterogeneous networked systems where the nodes are linear time-invariant systems (LTI), and the network topology is triangularizable. The literature contains necessary and sufficient conditions for the controllability of such systems where the control input matrices are identical in each node. Here, we extend this result to a class of heterogeneous systems where the control input matrices are distinct in each node. Additionally, we discuss the controllability of a more general system with triangular network topology and obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for controllability. Theoretical results are supplemented with numerical examples.