A structured systems approach for optimal actuator-sensor placement in linear time-invariant systems

In this paper we address the actuator/sensor allocation problem for linear time invariant (LTI) systems. Given the structure of an autonomous linear dynamical system, the goal is to design the structure of the input matrix (commonly denoted by B) such that the system is structurally controllable with the restriction that each input be dedicated, i.e., it can only control directly a single state variable. We provide a methodology to determine the minimum number of dedicated inputs required to ensure structural controllability, and characterize all (when not unique) possible configurations of the minimal input matrix B. Furthermore, we show that the proposed solution incurs polynomial complexity in the number of state variables. By duality, the solution methodology may be readily extended to the structural design of the corresponding minimal output matrix (commonly denoted by C) that ensures structural observability.