Exponential synchronization via pinning adaptive control for complex networks of networks with time delays

This paper is concerned with the pinning adaptive synchronization control problem for a class of complex networks of networks. The complex networks of networks under consideration are composed of both leaders' network and followers' networks (also called “subnetworks”), where the leaders' network and subnetworks are regarded as the nodes of the networks of networks, each subnetwork can receive the information from leaders' network, but not the reverse. In order to achieve the synchronization for the networks of networks, pinning control strategy is adopted, and adaptive controllers are designed for the controlled nodes. By utilizing the stability theory of dynamical systems and some analysis techniques such as the Barbalat lemma, several sufficient criteria are obtained to ensure global exponential synchronization for the controlled complex networks of networks. Finally, a numerical simulation example is given to verify the theoretical results.