A General Framework for Robust Output Synchronization of Heterogeneous Nonlinear Networked Systems

The paper aims to establish a general framework for robust output synchronization of a group of networked agents. The agents under investigation have nonlinear, uncertain and heterogeneous dynamics. Output synchronization denotes that all agents, through collaborative control, achieve output agreement and follow a desired pattern. In particular, the agreed trajectory is not defined by nor known to any agent in advance. Collaborative control is achieved using only output information from neighboring agents. Two concurrent actions are revealed in the proposed synchronization framework. This framework involves design strategies for both perturbed consensus and perturbed regulation problems, subject to a class of small gain conditions. The success of the framework is verified by constructive proof and numerical simulation.