Stabilization and output regulation of nonlinear systems in the large

A preliminary analysis of the local regulator problem is presented. It is then demonstrated that it is possible to isolate the main ingredients of a global solution to the output regulation problem. The authors then summarize some recent advances in the design of globally stabilizing feedback laws that were made possible by suitable use of the notion of passivity and, in particular, by the solution to the problem of when a given nonlinear system can be rendered passive via state feedback. Some of the results obtained are applied to the problem of deriving globally/asymptotically stabilizing feedback laws for certain classes of nonlinear systems