摘要：This paper surveys the results of observer design for linear time-invariant(L-T-I) deterministic irreducible open-loop systems(OLS), the most basic type of OLS. An observer estimates Kxx(t) signal where K is a constant and x(t) is the state vector of the OLS. Thus, an observer can be used as a feedback controller that implements state feedback control(SFC) or Kxx(t)-control,and observer design is therefore utterly important in all feedback control designs of state space theory. In this survey, the observer design results are divided into three categories and for three respective main purposes. The first category of observers estimate signal Kxx(t) only with a given K, and this survey has four conclusions: 1) Function observer that estimates Kxx(t) directly is more general than state observer that estimates x(t), and may be designed with order lower than that of state observer, and the additional design objective is to minimize observer order; 2) The function observer design problem has already been simplified to the solving of a single set of linear equations only while seeking the lowest possible number of rows of the solution matrix, and an apparently most effective and general algorithm of solving such a problem can guarantee unified upper and lower bounds of the observer order; 3) Because such a single set of linear equations is the simplest possible theoretical formulation of the design problem and such theoretical observer order bounds are the lowest possible, and because the general, simple, and explicit theoretical formula for the function observer order itself do not exist, the theoretical part of this design problem is solved; 4) Because the function observer order is generically near its upper bound, further improvement on the computational design algorithm so that the corresponding observer order can be further reduced,is generically not worthwhile. The second category of observers further realize the loop transfer function and robustness properties of t

摘要：Recently, the conditions of observers that can estimate directly Kx（t） for an arbitrarily given K, and that are free of the effect of time delayed states of the system, are formulated. This paper points out that, because of the equivalence in formulation, the existing conditions for unknown input observers can be used to establish directly a new set of sufficient conditions for that recent observer. This new set of sufficient conditions is much simpler, and therefore much more useful and significant, than the sufficient conditions derived in that recent paper. This new set of sufficient conditions also reveals some basic mistakes of that recent paper. In addition, this paper reveals the severe restrictiveness of this new set of conditions and proposes a fundamentally new observer design formulation that can relax that set of conditions significantly.