  In this paper we investigate the controllability and observability properties
of a family of linear dynamical systems, whose structure is induced by the
Laplacian of a grid graph. This analysis is motivated by several applications
in network control and estimation, quantum computation and discretization of
partial differential equations. Specifically, we characterize the structure of
the grid eigenvectors by means of suitable decompositions of the graph. For
each eigenvalue, based on its multiplicity and on suitable symmetries of the
corresponding eigenvectors, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions to
characterize all and only the nodes from which the induced dynamical system is
controllable (observable). We discuss the proposed criteria and show, through
suitable examples, how such criteria reduce the complexity of the
controllability (respectively observability) analysis of the grid.
