Delayed Interactions in Active Agents: Stability and Formations

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Wang, Yu, Amann, Andreas, Cao, Jinde, Kurths, Jürgen, Yanchuk, Serhiy
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Wang, Yu
Amann, Andreas
Cao, Jinde
Kurths, Jürgen
Yanchuk, Serhiy
author_facet Wang, Yu
Amann, Andreas
Cao, Jinde
Kurths, Jürgen
Yanchuk, Serhiy
contents Active agents with time-delayed interactions arise naturally in various real-world systems, such as biological systems, transportation networks and robotic swarms. Such systems are typically modeled as Delay Differential Equations (DDEs) that incorporate inertial effects. In this paper, we investigate the stability of pattern formation of active agents with inertia and time delays, in both uncoupled and coupled scenarios. We derive and analyze a high-dimensional linear DDE model that characterizes the stability of such formations. Starting with the uncoupled scenario, where agents are driven only by a virtual leader, we describe the stability spectrum and provide conditions for the delay-independent (absolute) stability of the formations, as well as delay-dependent stability and unstable hyperbolic behavior. Different cases correspond to distinct universality classes of the corresponding spectrum. For the coupled scenario, where agents are driven by both the virtual leader and inter-agent interactions, we consider both symmetric and non-symmetric coupling topologies. Here we also provide an explicit spectrum classification, including the absolute stability criterion. Additionally, we investigate interactions in the large-delay limit, where delays affect inter-agent coupling, while local feedback remains instantaneous. In this limit, we prove rigorously that the stability region in the complex plane of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix converges to a circle centered at the origin, a phenomenon previously observed in delay-coupled networks. Our findings provide a universal framework for understanding stable formations and motions of active agents with delayed interactions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_00554
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Delayed Interactions in Active Agents: Stability and Formations
Wang, Yu
Amann, Andreas
Cao, Jinde
Kurths, Jürgen
Yanchuk, Serhiy
Dynamical Systems
Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems
Active agents with time-delayed interactions arise naturally in various real-world systems, such as biological systems, transportation networks and robotic swarms. Such systems are typically modeled as Delay Differential Equations (DDEs) that incorporate inertial effects. In this paper, we investigate the stability of pattern formation of active agents with inertia and time delays, in both uncoupled and coupled scenarios. We derive and analyze a high-dimensional linear DDE model that characterizes the stability of such formations. Starting with the uncoupled scenario, where agents are driven only by a virtual leader, we describe the stability spectrum and provide conditions for the delay-independent (absolute) stability of the formations, as well as delay-dependent stability and unstable hyperbolic behavior. Different cases correspond to distinct universality classes of the corresponding spectrum. For the coupled scenario, where agents are driven by both the virtual leader and inter-agent interactions, we consider both symmetric and non-symmetric coupling topologies. Here we also provide an explicit spectrum classification, including the absolute stability criterion. Additionally, we investigate interactions in the large-delay limit, where delays affect inter-agent coupling, while local feedback remains instantaneous. In this limit, we prove rigorously that the stability region in the complex plane of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix converges to a circle centered at the origin, a phenomenon previously observed in delay-coupled networks. Our findings provide a universal framework for understanding stable formations and motions of active agents with delayed interactions.
title Delayed Interactions in Active Agents: Stability and Formations
topic Dynamical Systems
Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00554