Reachability and controllability of positive continuous time linear systems with time variable coefficients (Q1596534)

New sufficient conditions for reachability and controllability of positive linear continuous-time finite-dimensional control systems with variable coefficients are proved. The proof of the main result is based on the integral formula for the differential state equation. In fact, some important relationships between the Metzler matrix and a generalized permutation matrix, and corresponding reachability and controllability conditions for positive linear systems are established. As a special case, linear positive control systems with constant coefficients are considered. An illustrative example is also presented.