Whidborne, James F.McKernan, JohnGu, Da-Wei2011-11-172011-11-172006-07-01James F. Whidborne, John McKernan, Da-Wei Gu. Kolmogorov-Chaitin Complexity of Digital Controller Implementations. International Journal of Automation and Computing, Vol. 3 No.3, July 2006 pg 314-3221476-8186http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11633-006-0314-3http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/1235The complexity of linear, fixed-point arithmetic digital controllers is investigated from a Kolmogorov-Chaitin perspective. Based on the idea of Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity, practical measures of complexity are developed for statespace realizations, parallel and cascade realizations, and for a newly proposed generalized implicit state-space realization. The complexity of solutions to a restricted complexity controller benchmark problem is investigated using this measure. The results show that from a Kolmogorov-Chaitin viewpoint, higher-order controllers with a shorter word-length may have lower complexity and better performance, than lower-order controllers with longer word-length.Controller complexityfinite-precision arithmeticfinite word lengthdigital controllerKolmogorov-Chaitin complexityArticle