Action group on numerical methods in the behavioral setting

Chair: Ivan Markovsky, Co-chair: Paolo Rapisarda

The activities of this action group have been subsumed into the activities of the

IEEE technical committee on behavioral systems and control theory


Introduction

The behavioral approach to systems theory revises the classical input-output map notion of a dynamical system. A system is defined abstractly as a collection of legitimate trajectories. No a priori separation of the variables into inputs and outputs is imposed (but deduced from the system). Analysis and synthesis of systems in the behavioral setting still heavily relies on concrete representations. Among the representations used, the input/state/output and the vector difference equation ones play central role. Therefore, the familiar state space and polynomial linear algebra analysis tools are still the main tools for system analysis and synthesis. In the behavioral setting, however, the analysis and synthesis goals are defined on the higher level of the set of trajectories, which might lead to more adequate problem formulations and clearer solutions. Examples are the behavioral definition of controllability, the quadratic differential forms theory for the study of dissipative systems, and the interpretation of control as interconnection.

What is currently missing in the behavioral approach, at least from the applications point of view, are numerical methods derived from and devoted to this setting. Many algorithms are proposed in papers employing the behavioral approach but very little software based on these algorithms is currently developed. Particular problems studied in the behavioral setting that lead to algorithms are:


Goals

The goals of the action group on numerical methods in the behavioral setting are to collect, classify, and present (on this web page) information about progress in the research on the behavioral approach and in particular in the software implementation of the resulting theories. Our ultimate goal is to popularize the behavioral paradigm to the level of making it the standard approach to systems and control theory.

The activities of the Action Group on Numerical Methods in the Behavioral Setting overlap with those of the IEEE Technical Committee on Behavioral Systems and Control Theory.


People


Software


Invited sessions, Minicourses, and Workshops


Books