Minimal observability of switching Boolean networks

In this paper, the minimal observability of switching Boolean networks (SBNs) is investigated. Firstly, applying the semi‐tensor product (STP) method of matrices, a parallel extension system is constructed, based on which a necessary and sufficient condition to detect the observability of the SBNs is given. Secondly, when an SBN is unobservable, the specific steps to obtain the required measurements to make the system observable are given using the set reachable method; however, the measurements given in this part are not necessarily the fewest. Then, a criterion for determining the minimum number of measurements is further proposed through a constructed indicator matrix. Lastly, the effectiveness of the new results is verified by an example.