On self-triggered synchronization of linear systems*

Synchronization is one of the basic problems in coordinated control. The standard underlying assumption is that the systems that aim at synchronizing exchange information continuously. However, the real-time implementation of coordinating algorithms poses severe constraints on the amount and the schedule of exchanged information. In this paper we propose distributed hybrid controllers that guarantee synchronization of linear systems while collecting information sporadically. Each controller designs online the times at which information from neighbors is collected. At these times, it resets its internal state and then evolves continuously until new information is collected. We introduce hybrid controllers that achieve synchronization practically and asymptotically for networks of identical and heterogeneous linear systems.