On interconnections, control, and feedback

The purpose of this paper is to study interconnections and control of dynamical systems in a behavioral context. We start with an extensive physical example which serves to illustrate that the familiar input-output feedback loop structure is not as universal as we have been taught to believe. This leads to a formulation of control problems in terms of interconnections. Subsequently, we study interconnections of linear time-invariant systems from this vantage point. Let us mention two of the results obtained. The first one states that any polynomial can be achieved as the characteristic polynomial of the interconnection with a given plant, provided the plant is not autonomous. The second result states that any subsystem of a controllable system can be implemented by means of a singular feedback control law. These results yield pole placement and stabilization of controllable plants as a special case. These ideas are finally applied to the stabilization of a nonlinear system around an operating point.