Synchronization of multiple Euler-Lagrange systems with communication delays

The synchronization problem of networked Euler-Lagrange systems is addressed. The information flow in the network is subject to unknown time-varying (possibly discontinuous) communication delays, and is represented by a directed communication graph that contains a spanning tree. Using a small gain framework, it is shown that the proposed control scheme achieves synchronization under mild and realistic assumptions on the communication delays. Simulation results are presented that confirm the validity of the proposed approach.