Feedback Linearizability and Explicit Integrator Forwarding Controllers for Classes of Feedforward Systems

We identify a class of feedforward nonlinear systems that are linearizable by a coordinate change. Then we develop explicit expressions for the Lyapunov-based integrator forwarding recursive procedure of Sepulchre, Jankovic, and Kokotovic, which has its roots in a coordinate transformation proposed by Mazenc and Praly. The explicit expressions that we develop allow us to also find closed-form control laws for several classes of systems that are not feedback linearizable, including some that are in the feedforward form and others that are in what we refer to as the "block-feedforward" form. Performance advantages of Lyapunov-based forwarding controllers over nested saturation controllers have been well illustrated in the literature on examples. The analytical expressions for the Lyapunov functions and the control laws allow us to give quantitative performance bounds.