“…Such a problem is known, in the literature, as robust fault detection or fault detection using unknown input observers and has been considered by many workers (see for example WuÈ ennenberg (1990), Patton and Chen (1991), Hou and MuÈ ller (1994), Chen et al (1996), Dalton et al (1996), Duan et al (1997Duan et al ( , 1999 and Duan and Patton (1998)). Concerning observer-based approaches for robust fault detection, many researchers have used the full-order state observers (see for example Patton et al (1987), Patton andChen (1991, 1992), Park and Rizzoni (1994), Jorgensen et al (1995), Dalton, et al (1996), Duan et al (1997Duan et al ( , 1999 and Shen et al (1998)). The types of approach are simple because a full-order state observer employs a similar structure as the open-loop system and has only one coe cient matrix (the observer gain) to be designed.…”