Design of unknown input fractional-order observers for fractional-order systems

Abstract This paper considers a method of designing fractional-order observers for continuous-time linear fractional-order systems with unknown inputs. Conditions for the existence of these observers are given. Sufficient conditions for the asymptotical stability of fractional-order observer errors with the fractional order α satisfying 0 < α < 2 are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Two numerical examples are given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach, where the fractional order α belongs to 1≤α<2 and 0<α≤1, respectively. A stability analysis of the fractional-order error system is made and it is shown that the fractional-order observers are as stable as their integer order counterpart and guarantee better convergence of the estimation error.