Generalized observers are proposed to relax the existing conditions required to design Luenberger observers for rectangular linear descriptor systems with unknown inputs. The current work is focused on designing index one generalized observers, which can be naturally extended to higher indexes. Sufficient conditions in terms of system operators for the existence of generalized observers are given and proved. Orthogonal transformations are used to derive the results. A physical model is presented to show the usefulness of the proposed theory.

The paper investigates the controllability of fractional descriptor linear systems with constant delays in control. The Caputo fractional derivative is considered. Using the Drazin inverse and the Laplace transform, a formula for solving of the matrix state equation is obtained. New criteria of relative controllability for Caputo’s fractional descriptor systems are formulated and proved. Both constrained and unconstrained controls are considered. To emphasize the importance of the theoretical studies, an application to electrical circuits is presented as a practical example.