Topological classification of linear control systems—An elementary analytic approach

In this paper, we present a unified treatment on the linear, differentiable and topological equivalences for time-invariant linear control systems governed by ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Especially, we give a new solution to the topological classification problem for linear control systems by means of an elementary analytic approach, which differs considerably from J.C. Willems’ algebraic method developed in (Willems, 1980) [17]. More precisely, based on P. Brunovsky’s results in (Brunovsky, 1970) [2], we determine all topological invariants for the linear control system. As an interesting by-product, we show that there exist only finitely many topological equivalence classes for any stabilizable system with given numbers of state and control variables, which might be useful for some engineering applications.