In [4, 7, 9, 12], classes of nonlinear systems are considered for whic
h observers can be designed. Although observability of nonlinear syste
ms is known to be dependent on the input, the proposed observers have
the property that the estimation error decays to zero irrespective of
the input. In the first part of this paper, it is shown that this phen
omenon follows from a common property of these systems: for all of the
m, the ''unobservable states'' with respect to some input, are in some
sense ''stable'' (in the linear case, these systems are called detect
able), and for this reason, a reduced order observer can be designed.
In the second part is given a more general class of nonlinear systems
for which such an observer can be designed.