Output controllability of large-scale nonlinear dynamical systems: analysis, computation and examples

A sensitivity-based algorithm to establish state controllability is extended to establish output controllability being the ability to control the outputs of a nonlinear dynamical system instead of the full state. Due to the exceptional efficiency of the sensitivity-based algorithm, large-scale nonlinear dynamical systems can be handled, as demonstrated by several examples in this paper. As a final contribution, this paper starts with a simple analysis of state and output controllability properties of nonlinear dynamical systems in terms of connectivity’s and sensitivities. The latter relate directly to the sensitivity-based algorithm.