Minimum effort decentralized control design for contracting network systems

Abstract

We consider the problem of making a networked system contracting by designing minimal effort local controllers. Our method combines a hierarchical contraction characterization and a matrix-balancing approach to stabilizing a Metzler matrix via minimal diagonal perturbations. We demonstrate our approach by designing local controllers that render contractive a network of FitzHugh-Nagumo neurons with a general topology of interactions.