A novel formation control for multi-agent systems by nonlinear output regulation

In this paper, the formation control problem of multi-agent systems with affine nonlinear dynamic is considered. In other words, the agents have to acquire a pre-defined geometric shape and track a reference trajectory while maintaining the formation. The reference or disturbance signals are generated by an exo-system, which can be considered as an active leader or the environmental disturbance in the considered multi-agent systems. Based on the internal model principle, the formation control problem can be solved by solving the regulate equations. Finally, the illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the main results.