Exponential Synchronization for Delayed Dynamical Networks via Intermittent Control: Dealing With Actuator Saturations

Over the past two decades, the synchronization problem for dynamical networks has drawn significant attention due to its clear practical insight in biological systems, social networks, and neuroscience. In the case where a dynamical network cannot achieve the synchronization by itself, the feedback controller should be added to drive the network toward a desired orbit. On the other hand, the time delays may often occur in the nodes or the couplings of a dynamical network, and the existence of time delays may induce some undesirable dynamics or even instability. Moreover, in the course of implementing a feedback controller, the inevitable actuator limitations could downgrade the system performance and, in the worst case, destabilize the closed-loop dynamics. The main purpose of this paper is to consider the synchronization problem for a class of delayed dynamical networks with actuator saturations. Each node of the dynamical network is described by a nonlinear system with a time-varying delay and the intermittent control strategy is proposed. By using a combination of novel sector conditions, piecewise Lyapunov-like functionals and the switched system approach, delay-dependent sufficient conditions are first obtained under which the dynamical network is locally exponentially synchronized. Then, the explicit characterization of the controller gains is established by means of the feasibility of certain matrix inequalities. Furthermore, optimization problems are formulated in order to acquire a larger estimate of the set of initial conditions for the evolution of the error dynamics when designing the intermittent controller. Finally, two examples are given to show the benefits and effectiveness of the developed theoretical results.