Structural controllability of switched linear systems

This paper studies the structural controllability of a class of uncertain switched linear systems, where the parameters of subsystems’ state matrices are either unknown or zero. The structural controllability is a generalization of the traditional controllability concept for dynamical systems and purely based on the interconnection relation between the state variables and inputs through non-zero elements in the state matrices. In order to illustrate such a relationship, two kinds of graphic representations of switched linear systems are proposed, based on which graph theory-based necessary and sufficient characterizations of the structural controllability for switched linear systems are presented. Finally, the paper concludes with discussions on the results and future work.