Distributed output regulation for a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems via controller network

This paper considers a distributed output regulation problem for a class of multi-agent systems under directed topology. The heterogeneous controlled agents are in nonlinear output-feedback form with different relative degrees, and for each controlled agent, its dynamic controller is composed of an internal model and a distributed observer. Especially, the distributed observers together form certain controller network which provides controlled agents with the exchanged information about their own internal estimates. Consequently, the distributed output regulation problem can be simplified into observer-based partial-state feedback design of the decentralized type, which can be further tackled for each controlled agent separately by backstepping design technique. Certain comparisons are made with respect to the existing works, and simulation result is also presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the design.