Determining the order of minimal realization of descriptor systems without use of the Weierstrass canonical form

Abstract. A common method to determine the order of minimal realization of a continuous linear time invariant descriptor system is to decompose it into slow and fast subsystems using the Weierstrass canonical form. The Weierstrass decomposition should be avoided because it is generally an ill-conditioned problem that requires many complex calculations especially for high-dimensional systems. The present study finds the order of minimal realization of a continuous linear time invariant descriptor system without use of the Weierstrass canonical form.