A simple finite-time distributed observer design for linear time-invariant systems

A design of a distributed observer is proposed for continuous-time systems with nonlinear observer nodes such that the estimation errors converge in a finite time to zero. By taking advantage of individual observability decompositions, the designs for the locally observable and the unobservable substate are made independent from each other. For the observable substate of each node, standard centralized finite-time observer techniques are applied. To estimate distributively the unobservable substate, the observer nodes employ consensus coupling in a linear term and an additional term embedded in a fractional power. The approach is derived using homogeneity arguments and it leads to a simple design with an LMI that is guaranteed to be feasible under general conditions. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.