State Controllability
The state of a system, which is a collection of the system's variables values, completely describes the system at any given time. In particular, no information on the past of a system will help in predicting the future, if the states at the present time are known.
Complete state controllability (or simply controllability if no other context is given) describes the ability of an external input to move the internal state of a system from any initial state to any other final state in a finite time interval.
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Famous quotes containing the word state:
“A solitary traveller can sleep from state to state, from day to night, from day to day, in the long womb of its controlled interior. It is the cradle that never stops rocking after the lullaby is over. It is the biggest sleeping tablet in the world, and no one need ever swallow the pill, for it swallows them.”
—Lisa St. Aubin de Terán (b. 1953)