This paper formulates and solves a new problem of the double model following adaptive control (MFAC) of nodes and links in a complex dynamical network (CDN). This is different from most existing studies on CDN and MFAC. Inspired by the concept of composite systems, the CDN with dynamic links is regarded as an interconnected system composed of an interconnected node group (NG) and link group (LG). Guided by the above-mentioned new idea of viewing a CDN from the perspective of composite systems, by means of Lyapunov theory and proposed related mathematical preliminaries, a new adaptive control scheme is proposed for NG. In addition, to remove the restriction that the states of links in a CDN are unavailable due to physical constraints, technical restraints, and expensive measurement costs, we synthesize the coupling term in LG with the proposed adaptive control scheme for NG, such that the problem of double MFAC of nodes and links in CDN is solved. Finally, a simulation example is presented to verify the theoretical results.

Geometrically, a complex dynamical network (CDN) can be regarded as the interconnected system composed of the node subsystem (NS) and the link subsystem (LS) coupled with each other. Guided by this idea, in order to achieve the goal of each node following asymptotically its own reference target in a CDN, this paper investigates the model following adaptive control (MFAC) problem of NS via the dynamics of links, which implies that the LS plays the important dynamic auxiliary role in the MFAC realization of nodes. Meanwhile, we focus on the condition that the links state information is unavailable, due to sensor practical application and measurement cost constraints. To obviate this restriction, we construct the asymptotical state observer for the LS. Next, to achieve the control goal of this paper, an appropriate Lyapunov candidate function is selected, by which the MFAC scheme for NS is synthesized based on the state observer of LS. Finally, the simulation example is performed to demonstrate the theoretical results in this paper.