Nonlinear Dyn (2015) 82:1581–1593
DOI 10.1007/s11071-015-2262-3
ORIGINAL PAPER
Synchronization for non-dissipatively coupled time-varying
complex dynamical networks with delayed coupling nodes
Lili Zhang · Yinhe Wang · Yuanyuan Huang
Received: 24 June 2014 / Accepted: 3 July 2015 / Published online: 17 July 2015
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Abstract This paper investigates the synchroniza-
tion problem for the non-dissipatively coupled time-
varying complex dynamical networks via decentralized
state feedback controllers. In our network model, the
outer coupling configuration matrices are not restricted
by dissipatively coupled condition, time invariance,
symmetry, irreducibility or certainty. Besides, differ-
ent time-varying coupling delays are put into consider-
ation. Moreover, the similarities possessed by the nodes
in our network model are revealed based on the nodes’
dynamics and are applied to synthesize the controllers.
Furthermore, it is the common bound, not the exact
information, of the outer coupling coefficients that is
used to design the synchronization controllers. It is
worth pointing out that the uncertain outer coupling
coefficients’ common bound is admissible in our syn-
chronization schemes, and for this case, adaptive con-
trol mechanism is introduced to design the synchro-
nization controllers. Several proper simulation exam-
ples are given to verify the effectiveness and feasibility
of our theoretical results.
L. Zhang (
B
)
School of Applied Mathematics, Guangdong University of
Technology, Guangzhou 510006,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: zh_lili@sina.com
L. Zhang · Y. Wa n g · Y. H u a n g
School of Automation, Guangdong University of Technology,
Guangzhou 510006, People’s Republic of China
Keywords Complex dynamical networks · Synchro-
nization · Non-dissipatively coupled · Time-varying ·
Similar nodes · Delayed coupling
1 Introduction
Synchronization, as a kind of typical collective behav-
iors of complex dynamical networks [1], has attracted
increasing attention from various fields of science and
engineering over the past few decades. Synchronous
phenomena are ubiquitous in nature, for example, fire-
flies flashing in union and heart cells beating in rhythm.
Furthermore, some synchronous phenomena such as
the synchronous transfer of digital or analog signals in
communication networks are very important and use-
ful in our daily life. Thus, synchronization of complex
dynamical networks has been investigated extensively
[1–30]. Many kinds of synchronization, such as expo-
nential synchronization [11], asymptotic synchroniza-
tion [21], finite-time synchronization [9], cluster syn-
chronization [23,24], have been discussed.
In engineering, a typical problem of studying syn-
chronization for complex dynamical networks is to find
conditions that guarantee all the nodes in a network
achieving the same desired trajectory. To realize the
synchronization of a network, one important method is
adding controllers to some nodes or each node of the
network. Till now, many synchronization schemes via
control mechanism have been proposed. For example,
several synchronization criteria via designing adaptive
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