Observability for systems with more outputs than inputs and asymptotic observers (Q2365046)

We deal with the genericity of the observability property and the existence of asymptotic observers for nonlinear systems. In the case where the number of outputs is larger than the number of inputs and the state space is compact, we prove that observability for all sufficiently differentiable inputs, a property that we call \(C^k\)-observability, is generic. This is obtained by using transversality arguments. For the inputs together with their derivatives up to some order, that are uniformly bounded, we prove the generic existence of an asymptotic observer with arbitrary exponential decay of the error. With the same assumptions on the number of inputs and outputs, we also prove that any system can be approximated by an analytic \(C^k\)-observable one. Also, we prove that, for analytic systems, whatever the number of inputs and outputs, \(C^k\)-observability implies observability for all inputs (not necessarily differentiable). Hence any system with more outputs than inputs can be approximated by an observable one (for all \(L^\infty\) inputs), which can be chosen analytic.