A general framework for tackling the output regulation problem

Output regulation aims to achieve, in addition to closed-loop stability, asymptotic tracking and disturbance rejection for a class of reference inputs and disturbances. Thus, it poses a more challenging problem than stabilization. For over a decade, the nonlinear output regulation problem has been one of the focuses in nonlinear control research, and active research on this problem has generated many fruitful results. Nevertheless, there are two hurdles that impede the further progress of the research on the output regulation problem. The first one is the assumption that the solution or the partial solution of the regulator equations is polynomial. The second one is the lack of a systematic mechanism to handle the global robust output regulation problem. We establish a general framework that systematically converts the robust output regulation problem for a general nonlinear system into a robust stabilization problem for an appropriately augmented system. This general framework, on one hand, relaxes the polynomial assumption, and on the other hand, offers a greater flexibility to incorporate recent new stabilization techniques, thus setting a stage for systematically tackling the robust output regulation with global stability.