On exponential obsevers for nonlinear systems (Q1108977)

The aim of the paper is to identify the class of nonlinear systems that have exponential observers - a concept introduced by previous authors. It is shown that a necessary condition for the existence of an exponential observer for a nonlinear system is that the corresponding linearized system is detectable, and for local exponential stabilization problems, the condition is also sufficient. This paper gives also a theorem on the separation property for the exponential design problem, and it enables us to tell exactly to what extent the classical local linearization approach is applicable.