A Graph-Theoretic Characterization of Controllability for Multi-agent Systems

In this paper, we continue our pursuit of conditions that render a multi-agent networked system controllable. In particular, such conditions are sought for networks in which a collection of the agents take on leader roles while the remaining agents execute local, consensus-like control laws. Equitable partitions are introduced in order to improve on previous controllability results and the main contribution of this paper is a new necessary condition for controllability.