On observer design for nonlinear systems

The main weakness of all control methodologies is the dependency of feedbacks to full state measurements. In practical situations, measuring the states of a given system may fail because sometimes the measurements are impossible and sometimes, possible, but too expensive. Observer design for highly nonlinear dynamics is an important issue, particularly when the locally observable dynamics are not linearly observable. In such circumstances the ability to reduce the system to observable or observer form is key to observer design. This paper provides two observers for nonlinear systems given in Brunovski form. The first observer is a high-gain observer with a classical output injection form, while the second is a high-gain observer with a q-integral path. Finally, the discrete-time implementation of the high-gain observer is discussed in linear matrix inequality framework. A motivating example is shown to highlight the efficacy of the developed observers.