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.