In this paper we investigate the reachability and observability properties of a network system, running a Laplacian based average consensus algorithm, when the communication graph is a path or a cycle. More in detail, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions, based on simple algebraic rules from number theory, to characterize all and only the nodes from which the network system is reachable (respectively observable). Interesting immediate corollaries of our results are: (i) a path graph is reachable (observable) from any single node if and only if the number of nodes of the graph is a power of two, n = 2 i , i ∈ N, and (ii) a cycle is reachable (observable) from any pair of nodes if and only if n is a prime number. For any set of control (observation) nodes, we provide a closed form expression for the (unreachable) unobservable eigenvalues and for the eigenvectors of the (unreachable) unobservable subsystem.

In this paper we investigate the controllability and observability properties of a family of linear dynamical systems, whose structure is induced by the Laplacian of a grid graph. This analysis is motivated by several applications in network control and estimation, quantum computation and discretization of partial differential equations. Specifically, we characterize the structure of the grid eigenvectors by means of suitable decompositions of the graph. For each eigenvalue, based on its multiplicity and on suitable symmetries of the corresponding eigenvectors, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions to characterize all and only the nodes from which the induced dynamical system is controllable (observable). We discuss the proposed criteria and show, through suitable examples, how such criteria reduce the complexity of the controllability (respectively observability) analysis of the grid. time in [14], where necessary conditions for observability, as in the dual controllability setting investigated in [8] and [9], are provided. A parallel research line investigates slightly different properties called structural controllability, [15], [16], and structural observability, [17]. Here, the objective is to choose the nonzero entries of the consensus matrix (i.e. the state matrix of March 2, 2012 DRAFT

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The issue of single range based observability analysis and observer design for the kinematics model of a 3D vehicle eventually subject to a constant unknown drift velocity is addressed. The proposed method departs from alternative solutions to the problem and leads to the definition of a linear time invariant state equation with a linear time varying output. Simple necessary and sufficient observability conditions are derived. The localization problem is finally solved using a novel outlier robust predictor -corrector state estimator. Numerical simulation examples are described to illustrate the performance of the method as compared to a standard Kalman filter.

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