Observability, Reconstructibility and Observer Design for Linear Mechanical Systems Unobservable in Absence of Impacts

This paper deals with a class of mechanical systems, constituted by two composite bodies which interact with each other only during collisions: since only one position variable of only one body is measured, the whole system would not be observable without impacts. Each body is possibly constituted by several masses connected by linear springs, so that the internal deformations can be taken into account (the so-called multiple-degrees-of-freedom impacts). For two relevant and different cases, the structural properties of observability and reconstructibility are studied, and observers are proposed in order to estimate all the state variables, including those that would be unobservable in absence of impacts.