Is this dynamical system coupled?

87 Views Asked by At

A LTI system is described by

$$\dot{x}=Ax+Bu$$

If $A$ is of the form:

$$A=\begin{pmatrix} A_1(x_1,…,x_j)\\ A_2(x_{j+1},…,x_n) \end{pmatrix}$$

The meaning of this structure of $A$ is that only the first $j$ states matter for the first $j$ derivatives and similar for the other part of $A$. $B$ is of the form :

$$B=\begin{pmatrix} B_1\\ B_2 \end{pmatrix}$$

And $u$ can only assume the values $\pm1$, then can we say that the we have two decoupled subsystems and thus we can consider as independent

$$\dot{x}_1=A_1x_1+B_1u \qquad (x_1,\dot{x}_1) \ \text{range from} \ 1 \ \text{to} \ j$$

and

$$\dot{x}_2=A_2x_2+B_2u \qquad (x_1,\dot{x}_2) \ \text{range from} \ j+1 \ \text{to} \ n$$

or, in words, if the states are not related each other but by an exogenous input, can we say the states are independent?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

In control theory, systems are considered decoupled with regards to the input-state (or input-output) relation. That is, it must be the case that there is one input that drives the $x_1$ states, and another input that drives the $x_2$ states. So, no, the systems are not decoupled. The (single) independent variable (control) $u,$ determines two independently-varying states $x_1$ and $x_2.$ You need more than one input to perform a decoupling of this input-state relation. The range of allowable $u$ makes no difference to this end.

The LTI system is properly decoupled if the Transfer Function Matrix from the inputs to the outputs are diagonal.