Decentralized Synchronization of Uncertain Nonlinear Systems with a Reputation Algorithm

Decentralized synchronization approaches generally assume that communication of state information between neighboring agents is completely accurate. However, just one agent's communication of inaccurate information to neighbors can significantly degrade the performance of the entire network. To help abate this problem, we present a decentralized controller for a leader-follower framework which uses local information to vet neighbors and change consensus weights accordingly. Because updates of the consensus weights produce a switched system, switching control theory techniques are used to develop a dwell-time that must elapse between agents' successive weight updates. A Lyapunov-based stability analysis is presented which develops sufficient conditions for approximate convergence of follower agents' states to a leader agent's time-varying state. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the developed techniques.