A Contraction Approach to the Hierarchical Analysis and Design of Networked Systems

This brief is concerned with the stability of continuous-time networked systems. Using contraction theory, a result is established on the network structure and the properties of the individual component subsystems and their couplings to ensure the overall contractivity of the entire network. Specifícally, it is shown that a contraction property on a reduced-order matrix that quantifies the interconnection structure, coupled with contractivity/expansion estimates on the individual component subsystems, suffices to ensure that trajectories of the overall system converge towards each other.