A necessary and sufficient condition for input identifiability for linear time-invariant systems

A necessary and sufficient condition for input identifiability for linear autonomous systems is given. The result is based on a finite iterative process and its proof relies on elementary arguments involving matrices, finite dimensional linear spaces, Gronwall’s lemma, and linear differential systems. Our condition is equivalent to the classical condition involving the geometrical concept of controlled invariant [V. Basile, G. Marro, Controlled and Conditioned Invariants in Linear System Theory, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1992, p. 237] and the dimension reduction algorithm that we propose seems to be useful in designing deconvolution methods.