3Centrale Lille (École Centrale de Lille - Cité Scientifique - CS 20048 59651 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex - France)
Abstract : Sub-homogeneity property is introduced and is related to a differential inclusion (DI). It is shown that a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE), which may not admit a homogeneous approximation, can be transformed into a sub-homogeneous DI (which is a homogeneous extension of the original ODE). Using this homogeneous extension, one can directly recover finite-time stability property for some particular classes of nonlinear systems. In the last section, such a sub homogeneity property is used to design a nonlinear finite-time observer.