Feedback Control Principles for Biological Control of Dengue Vectors

Controlling diseases such as dengue fever, chikun-gunya and zika fever by introduction of the intracellular parasitic bacterium Wolbachia in mosquito populations which are their vectors, is presently quite a promising tool to reduce their spread. While description of the conditions of such experiments has received ample attention from biologists, entomologists and applied mathematicians, the issue of effective scheduling of the releases remains an interesting problem for Control theory. Having in mind the important uncertainties present in the dynamics of the two populations in interaction, we attempt here to identify general ideas for building release strategies, which should apply to several models and situations. These principles are exemplified by two interval observer-based feedback control laws whose stabilizing properties are demonstrated when applied to a model retrieved from [1]. Crucial use is made of the theory of monotone dynamical systems.