Co-evolutionary control of a class of coupled mixed-feedback systems

Abstract: Oscillatory behavior is ubiquitous in many natural and engineered systems, often emerging through self-regulating mechanisms. In this paper, we address the challenge of stabilizing a desired oscillatory pattern in a networked system where neither the internal dynamics nor the interconnections can be changed. To achieve this, we propose two distinct control strategies. The first requires the full knowledge of the system generating the desired oscillatory pattern, while the second only needs local error information. In addition, the controllers are implemented as co-evolutionary, or adaptive, rules of some edges in an extended plant-controller network. We validate our approach in several insightful scenarios, including synchronization and systems with time-varying network structures.