Some sufficient conditions for the observability of nonlinear systems

Some sufficient conditions are presented for the observability of systems described by nonlinear, ordinary differential equations with linear observations. The point which the authors especially emphasize is the fact that the results obtained are global in some sense. In the beginning, the observability problem is reduced to the uniqueness problem of solutions of some nonlinear integral equations for general nonlinear systems with linear observations. Then, for some restricted systems, a simple sufficient condition is derived. The relation between global and local observability for nonlinear systems is also considered.The authors wish to thank their colleagues in Nagoya University.