Controlled synchronization:A Huygens' inspired approach

This paper considers synchronization as a control problem. In particular, a (robust) controller for achieving synchronization in pairs of second order nonlinear systems is designed. The design is inspired by the classical experiment on synchronization of pendulum clocks, as described by Christiaan Huygens. In the proposed control scheme, the systems do not interact directly but through an exogenous system. Ultimately, it is demonstrated that Huygens' controller, can be used to perform in-phase and anti-phase synchronized tasks, with the advantage that 'small' control gains are required. The stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed using perturbation theory and the proposed controller is experimentally validated on a pair of Cartesian robots.