Dissipative observers for discrete-time nonlinear systems

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of designing a state observer for a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems using the dissipativity theory. We show that the dissipative observation methodology, originally proposed by one of the authors for continuous-time nonlinear systems, can be extended to the discrete-time case. For constructing a convergent observer, the methodology is applied to the nonlinear estimation error dynamics, which is decomposed into a discrete-time Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) subsystem in the forward loop, connected to a time-varying static nonlinearity in the feedback loop. In order to assure asymptotic stability of the closed-loop, complementary dissipativity conditions are imposed on each of the subsystems: (i) the static nonlinearity is required to be dissipative with respect to a quadratic supply rate, and (ii) the observer gains are designed such that the LTI system is dissipative with respect to a complementary supply rate. As in the continuous time framework, the proposed method includes as special cases, unifies and generalizes some observer design methods proposed previously in the literature. A great advantage of the Dissipative Observer Design Method proposed here is that it leads to Matrix Inequalities for the design of the observer gains, and these can be usually converted into Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI’s). The results are illustrated using Chua’s Chaotic system.