Structure identification of uncertain general complex dynamical networks with time delay

It is well known that many real-world complex networks have various uncertain information, such as unknown or uncertain topological structure and node dynamics. The structure identification problem has theoretical and practical importance for uncertain complex dynamical networks. At the same time, time delay often appears in the state variables or coupling coefficients of various practical complex networks. This paper initiates a novel approach for simultaneously identifying the topological structure and unknown parameters of uncertain general complex networks with time delay. In particular, this method is also effective for uncertain delayed complex dynamical networks with different node dynamics. Moreover, the proposed method can be easily extended to monitor the on-line evolution of network topological structure. Finally, three representative examples are then given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.