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Distributed Control for Signed Networks of Nonlinear Agents

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Abstract

This paper copes with distributed control problems for signed networks that consist of a group of nonlinear agents. A distributed control algorithm is designed by using the nearest neighbor rule. For Lipschitz-type nonlinear dynamics, this algorithm guarantees structurally balanced signed networks to achieve bipartite consensus and structurally unbalanced signed networks to reach state stability, respectively. When bounded nonlinear dynamics are considered, all agents exponentially converge to a definite bound within a finite time, regardless of whether the signed networks are structurally balanced or structurally unbalanced. A Lyapunov approach is simultaneously exploited to carry out the dynamic behaviors analysis of signed networks. Four examples are provided to demonstrate the validity of the developed theoretical results.

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Correspondence to Deyuan Meng.

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Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Recommended by Associate Editor Shun-ichi Azuma under the direction of Myo Taeg Lim. This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61873013, 61573034, 61922007 and 61520106010) and in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

Mingjun Du received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Automation from Chengdu University of Information Technology (CUIT), Chengdu, China, in June 2012, and his M.S. degree in Mathematics from Beihang University (BUAA), Beijing, China, in March 2015. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree with the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University. His research interest is distributed control of multi-agent systems.

Baoli Ma received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Control Engineering from Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU), Xi’an, China. He received his Ph.D. degree in System and Control Science from Beihang University (BUAA), Beijing, China. He is currently a professor of Beihang University. His research interests include nonlinear control, robotics and automation.

Deyuan Meng received his B.S. degree in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Ocean University of China (OUC), Qingdao, China, in June 2005, and his Ph.D. degree in Control Theory and Control Engineering from Beihang University (BUAA), Beijing, China, in July 2010. He is currently with the Seventh Research Division and School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering at Beihang University. From November 2012 to November 2013, he was a visiting scholar with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA. His research interests include iterative learning control, multi-agent systems, and social opinion dynamics.

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Du, M., Ma, B. & Meng, D. Distributed Control for Signed Networks of Nonlinear Agents. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 18, 271–281 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-018-0871-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-018-0871-6

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