Perfect observers of standard linear systems (Q1876955)

Linear, finite-dimensional, continuous-time, time-invariant control systems are considered. The concept of the so-called singular control system is also introduced. Next, using algebraic methods taken directly from matrix theory, necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of perfect full-order and reduced-order observers are formulated and proved. These conditions require the verification of the rank of a certain observability matrix. Next, the procedures for designing the perfect observers are presented and discussed. Finally, the theoretical results are illustrated by a simple numerical example which explains the successive steps of the design procedure. Moreover, many remarks and comments concerning state observers for linear systems are presented. It should be pointed out that similar problems for discrete-time systems have been recently considered in the paper [\textit{T. Kaczorek}, ``Perfect observers for singular 2-D Fornasini-Marchesini models'', IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 46, No. 10, 1671--1675 (2001; Zbl 1009.93044)].