A Multiplex Approach Against Disturbance Propagation in Nonlinear Networks with Delays

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multiplex control protocol for nonlinear networks with delays, ensuring convergence and disturbance rejection, validated through simulations and real robot experiments.

Contribution

It proposes a novel multiplex control architecture for nonlinear delayed networks, providing sufficient conditions for stability and disturbance rejection.

Findings

Protocols guarantee convergence and disturbance rejection.

Validated through simulations and real robot experiments.

Effective in formation control scenarios.

Abstract

We consider both leaderless and leader-follower, possibly nonlinear, networks affected by time-varying communication delays. For such systems, we give a set of sufficient conditions that guarantee the convergence of the network towards some desired behaviour while simultaneously ensuring the rejection of polynomial disturbances and the non-amplification of other classes of disturbances across the network. To fulfill these desired properties, and prove our main results, we propose the use of a control protocol that implements a multiplex architecture. The use of our results for control protocol design is then illustrated in the context of formation control. The protocols are validated both in-silico and via an experimental set-up with real robots. All experiments confirm the effectiveness of our approach.