“…In the synchronization problem, one investigates conditions under which the state variables of all the subsystems asymptotically converge to each other, while in the formation control problem, one studies the distributed control laws which ensure that the position or the velocity of all the subsystems converge to the desired position or velocity. Passivity ( [1], [3], [12], [11]), or the weaker notion of semi-passivity ( [9], [8], [14]), has been studied in both the synchronization and formation control problems. In the context of output synchronization, the notion of incrementally passive nonlinear systems has been exploited to show that the relative output measurements in a network suffice to ensure output synchronization, i.e., the outputs of all the subsystems asymptotically converge to each other [12].…”