Pinning Stabilization of Boolean Control Networks via a Minimum Number of Controllers

The stabilization problem of Boolean control networks (BCNs) under pinning control is investigated in this article, and the set of pinned nodes is minimized. A BCN is a Boolean network with Boolean control inputs in it. When the given BCNs cannot realize stabilization under existing Boolean control inputs, pinning control strategy is introduced to make the BCNs achieve stabilization. The Warshall algorithm is introduced to verify the stabilizability of BCNs, then novel computational feasible algorithms are developed to design the minimum number pinning controller for the system. By using our method, the minimum set of pinned nodes can be found with relatively low computational complexity. Finally, the theoretical result is validated using a biological example.