Local observer design for nonlinear systems

This paper is a geometric study of the local observer design for nonlinear systems. First, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for local exponential observers for Lyaupnov stable nonlinear systems. We also show that the definition of local exponential observers can be considerably weakened for neutrally stable nonlinear systems. As an application of our local observer design, we consider a class of nonlinear systems with an input generator (exosystem) and show that for this class of nonlinear systems, under some stability assumptions, the existence of local exponential observers in the presence of inputs implies and is implied by the existence of local exponential observers in the absence of inputs.