On the minus partial order in control systems

Abstract In this paper, the minus matrix partial order is considered to introduce the concept of minus partial ordered control systems. The transmission of the reachability property under this binary relation is investigated. Furthermore, the analysis of compartmental systems leads us to consider block triangular matrices. Hence, the existence and computation of partially ordered matrices having a similar block structure are studied. These results are applied to compartmental systems to get, via feedback, related systems with the same block structure and ordered under the minus partial order.