Design of observers for timed continuous Petri net systems

The design of observers is a topic of major importance in systems theory. Under a given firing semantics for transitions, the formalism of timed continuous Petri net systems represents a specific kind of piecewise linear system: the linear system that drives the evolution of the net system depends exclusively on the marking. This implies that a switch occurs only when an internal event happens. This paper deals with observability on continuous Petri nets and focuses on the design of observers. The proposed observers are piecewise linear systems that assure the continuity of the estimate even when a switch occurs. The use of the system simulation may allow to estimate even the unobservable space of the net system during a given time period.