Observer Design for Detectable Switched Differential-Algebraic Equations

This paper studies detectability for switched linear differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) and its application in synthesis of observers. Equating detectability to asymptotic stability of zero-output-constrained state trajectories, and building on our work on interval-wise observability, we propose the notion of interval-wise detectability: If the output of the system is constrained to be identically zero over an interval, then the norm of the corresponding state trajectories scales down by a certain factor over that interval. Conditions are provided under which the interval-wise detectability leads to asymptotic stability of zero-output-constrained state trajectories. An application is demonstrated in designing state estimators. Decomposing the state into observable and unobservable components, we show that if the observable component in the estimator is reset appropriately and persistently, then the estimation error converges to zero asymptotically under the interval-wise detectability assumption.