Robust Reachability of Boolean Control Networks

Boolean networks serve a powerful tool in analysis of genetic regulatory networks since it emphasizes the fundamental principles and establishes a nature framework for capturing the dynamics of regulation of cellular states. In this paper, the robust reachability of Boolean control networks is investigated by means of semi-tensor product. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the robust reachability of Boolean control networks are provided, in which control inputs relying on disturbances or not are considered, respectively. Besides, the corresponding control algorithms are developed for these two cases. A reduced model of the lac operon in the Escherichia coli is presented to show the effectiveness of the presented results.