Formation control for nonlinear multi-agent systems by robust output regulation

In this paper, the formation control problem of multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamic is considered. Output regulation problem of nonlinear systems is generalized to the formation control problem of nonlinear multi-agent systems. The reference inputs or disturbance signals are generated by an exo-system, which can be considered as an active leader in the considered multi-agent systems. When some agents cannot obtain the information from the exo-system, the distributed nonlinear feedback controller is designed. Based on the internal model principle, the distributed output regulation formation control problem can be solved by solving the regulator equations. The illustrative example demonstrates the effectiveness of the main results. & 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.