Contraction Analysis of Time-Delayed Communications and Group Cooperation

Abstract

We study stability of interacting nonlinear systems with time-delayed communications, using contraction theory and a simplified wave variable design inspired by robotic teleoperation. We show that contraction is preserved through specific time-delayed feedback communications, and that this property is independent of the values of the delays. The approach is then applied to group cooperation with linear protocols, where it is shown that synchronization can be made robust to arbitrary time delays.