Design and applications of interval observers for uncertain dynamical systems

Interval observer design and related techniques have been researched and applied in many engineering fields and continue to be an active research area in the estimation and control society for the last two decades. An Interval observer is a special class of observers that generates a bounded interval vector for the real state vector in a guaranteed way under the assumption that the uncertainties are unknown but bounded. Some of the basic concepts and the main developments in the designs and applications of interval observer for continuous-time, discrete-time (linear and non-linear), fuzzy and switched systems are reviewed in this work. It also provides a brief discussion of the main approaches in this area with clear descriptions of their structures and future directions.