Bipartite Containment Control of Nonuniform Delayed Fractional-Order Multi-agent Systems Over Signed Networks

In this study, the bipartite containment control problem of fractional-order multi-agent systems with nonuniform time delays is addressed. An in-depth analysis of the system stability and bipartite containment control performance from a delay margin perspective is provided. Theoretically, the corresponding delay margin (maximum allowable time delay) over undirected and directed signed networks is obtained in the presence of nonuniform time delays, respectively. In addition, numerical relationships between the delay margin and the control coefficients, fractional order, and topology parameters are established, thus enabling easy and direct calculation of the maximum allowable time delay and facilitating distributed controller design and controller parameter tuning. Finally, some simulation examples are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed bipartite containment controller and the obtained delay margin.