Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is devoted to current trends in the control of complex systems, including, but not limited to, the following topics.

1. Control of production and economic systems, covering financial and transport networks. Modern transnational production systems are distinguished by their global geographic location. At the same time, the production process in each production unit of the system should proceed without interruption with raw materials and components, and the level of automation in each unit should ensure the exchange of information and interaction of measuring and executive devices via wired and wireless communication channels to ensure the stability and accuracy of the equipment. The solution of such problems is complicated by the heterogeneity of the mathematical models of production and exchange processes, as well as by the large, or even huge, volumes of the arising data arrays.
2. Control of groups of ground, air, and sea vehicles. The recent active development of UAVs has opened up new opportunities, such as joint cargo carrying, construction of structures by robot teams, self-assembly of structures in the air, etc. New control methods should be developed with control objectives corresponding to different types of behavior among the "team" of robots. The tasks of air traffic dispatch control are also of practical importance, the solution of which is complicated by the growth of the "population" of the airspace, especially near large cities and airports.
3. An important class of complex systems are electrical networks, consisting of a large number of generators (power plants), connected by power lines. The main goal of control is to achieve and maintain the stable synchronous operation of generators under conditions of variable load and nodal disturbances.
4. Control of ecological systems in order to preserve the stable existence of populations, protecting them from extinction, and to facilitate the growth and preservation of the number of species within the established limits. In such systems, it is advisable to move from traditional forms of setting management goals (regulation and tracking) to more “soft” ones, such as partial stabilization—for example, the regulation of any function of the state of the ecosystem, which is an invariant of a free system’s behavior.
5. Neural networks formed from human or animal nerve cells associated with the consequences of electrical or biochemical interactions give a very informative example of complex systems. The dynamics of these networks are so complex that at first glance, mathematical methods for controlling neural networks are inapplicable. However, such fears are refuted by such innovations as neuro-response, which originated in recent years in neuroscience and has undergone rapid development.
6. The new developing area of molecular systems and nanosystems deserves a special mention, including the control of quantum networks, in which nodes are carriers of quantum information.

Prof. Dr. Boris Andrievsky
Guest Editor

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• control
• complex systems
• networks
• groups of vehicles
• production systems
• electrical networks
• ecological systems
• neural networks