Pole-placement with constant gain output feedback

Davison (1970) has demonstrated that it is possible to assign max (m, p) poles of a linear time-invariant controllable and observable multivariable system arbitrarily close to desired locations by using constant gain output feedback. A new proof of Davison's theorem on pole placement is developed, and a system design procedure is described which offers some advantages over Davison's method. It is shown that in some cases more than max (m, p) poles can be assigned arbitrarily, and a least square design procedure is proposed to approximate the desired pole locations when it is not possible to place all the poles.