Using small feedback to stabilize a wider class of feedforward systems 1

Abstract This paper presents a further improvement of the previous work (Mazenc, 1997; Lin and Qian, 1998). By a delicate analysis and an appropriate separation of the vector field, we show how a novel synthesis approach that combines the forwarding design (Mazenc and Praly, 1996; Mazenc, 1997) and the passivity-based small control technique (Lin, 1995 and 1996) can be used to solve the problem of global stabilization, for a significant class of feedforward systems that cannot be adequately controlled using existing methods.