Output synchronization of nonlinear systems with relative degree one

Abstract

In this paper we extend our earlier results on output synchronization of nonlinear passive systems to the case of nonlinear systems with relative degree one. It is well known [5] that weakly minimum phase systems with relative degree one are feedback equivalent to a passive system with a positive definite storage function. We exploit this feedback equivalence to develop control laws for output synchronization of such systems, exchanging outputs on balanced graphs, and in the presence of communication delays, and switching interconnection topologies. We further show that the balanced graph assumption can be removed provided the internal dynamics in the normal form are Input-to-State-Stable (ISS) for each agent. Simulation results are presented to verify the obtained results. © 2008 Springer London.