LAUSR

The decentralized $${\mathscr{H}}_{\infty }$$H∞ sampled-data control problem is investigated for a class of continuous-time large-scale networked nonlinear systems with interconnection. Each nonlinear subsystem in the considered large-scale system is represented by a Takagi–Sugeno model and is closed by a communication channel with transformed time delay. Our objective is to design a decentralized sampled-data fuzzy controller such that the resulting fuzzy control system is asymptotically stable with an $${\mathscr{H}}_{\infty }$$H∞ performance. Firstly, using an input delay approach, the sampled-data control system is formulated into the system with time-varying delay, and a two-term approximation method is proposed such that the delayed system is reformulated into an interconnected framework with input and output. Then, we introduce a Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional that all Lyapunov matrices are no longer required to be positive definite. Combined with the scaled small gain theorem, the less conservative solutions to the decentralized $${\mathscr{H}}_{\infty }$$H∞ sampled-data control problem for the considered system are derived in the form of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed methods is illustrated by two numerical examples.