In particular, it is easy to build a state tracker when the IS

system is flat i.e. when there exists a remarkable

output, called a flat output, which completely sums up
the differential behavior of the IS system (or equivalently
the zero dynamics for this output is trivial). There is then
a one-to-one correspondence between trajectories of the
IS system and
trajectories of the flat output, and for that reason a
controller tracking the flat output (simply obtained by IO
linearization with respect to the flat output) is actually a
state tracker. Note that existence of a flat output is
indeed a property of x = f(x,u) alone, and has nothing to
do with the tracking y=h(x) In a nutshell, the idea is
simply to split the output tracking problem in two steps:
1. design, once for all, a state tracker using the flat
output
(this is a closed-loop problem)
(2. design a trajectory generator to feed the state tracker.
this is an open-loop problem).
The role of the trajectory generator is to create a
reference for the flat output (or equivalently a reference
state trajectory) from the desired output trajectory. We
thus indirectly control the tracking output through the
flat output.
An interest in studying flatness grows because many
classes of systems,
also nonlinear, important in applications are flat. The
truth is that any flat system can be feedback linearized
using dynamic feedback. Flatness is a system property,
and it indicates that the nonlinear structure of the system
is well characterized and one can exploit this structure in
designing control algorithms for motion planning,

trajectory generation, or stabilization. Another advantage

of flatness comparing to dynamic feedback linearizations
that it is a geometric property of a system, independent
of a coordinate selection. Specifically, in a traditional
control approach to systems, when one classifies a
system as linear in a state-space, this is meaningless
from the geometric
point of view because the system is linear in the specific
coordinate
representation. In this way, flatness can be considered
the proper geometric notion of linearity even though the
system may be nonlinear in any selected coordinates.
We say that the feedback
u=k(x,z,w),
z=a(x,z,w),
is endogenous if the open-loop dynamics x= f (x,u) is
equivalent to the
closed-loop dynamics.
x= f (x,k(x,z,w)),
z=a(x,z,w),
A dynamics is flat if and only if it is linearizable by
endogenous
feedback and a coordinate change. The controllability
property is
preserved by equivalence.
The flatness property is helpful in trajectory tracking
problems for nonlinear systems. Let us stress that
flatness is not another way of performing feedback
linearization, but it is a structural property of a system,
and it helps to reveal the system properties necessary for
an application of a feedback controller, e.g., feedback
linearization, backstepping, or passivity-based control.

lf the value of the control at time t depends only on the

values, at the same instant of time, of the state x and of
the external reference input, the control is said to be a
Static (or Memoryless) State Feedback Control.
Otherwise, if the control depends also on a set of
additional state variables, i.e. if this control is itself the
output of an appropriate dynamical system having its
own internal state, driven by x and by the external
reference input, we say that a Dynamic State
Feedback Control is implemented.
In a single-input single-output system, the most
convenient structure for a Static State Feedback Control
is the one in which the input variable u is set equal to
u = (x) + (x)v (4.10)
where v is the external reference input (see Fig. 4.2). In
fact, the composition
of this control with a system of the form
x = f(x) + g(x)u
y = h(x)
yields a closed loop characterized by the similar structure
x = f(x) + g(x)(x) + g(x)(x)v
y = h(x)

The dynamics of correspond to the dynamics describing

the "internal"
behavior of the system when input and initial conditions
have been
chosen in such a way as to constrain the output to remain
identically zero. These dynamics, which are rather
important in many of our developments, are called the
zero dynamics of the system.