Functional observer design for Boolean control networks with unknown structures

In this paper, we use input and output data to study the functional observer design problem for observable Boolean control networks (BCNs). By taking advantage of the algebraic forms of BCNs, a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of reducible states is presented, and an algorithm is proposed to separate reducible states. Based on input and output data, we construct state -output transfer matrices for observable BCNs with unknown structures, and then propose a procedure to design functional observers estimating the states of BCNs. Examples are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the obtained results.