Identification of dynamic models in complex networks with prediction error methods : basic methods for consistent module estimates.

All approaches to optimal experiment design for control have so far focused on deriving an input signal (or input signal spectrum) that minimizes some control-oriented measure of plant/model mismatch between the nominal closed loop system and the actual closed loop system, typically under a constraint on the total input power. In practical terms, this amounts to finding the (constrained) input signal that minimizes a measure of a control-oriented model uncertainty set. Here we address the experiment design problem from a "dual" point of view and in a closed-loop setting: given a maximum allowable controloriented model uncertainty measure compatible with our robust control specifications, what is the cheapest identification experiment that will give us an uncertainty set that is within the required bounds? The identification cost can be measured by either the experiment time, the performance degradation during experimentation due to the added excitation signal, or a combination of both. Our results are presented for the situation where the control objective is disturbance rejection only.

Dynamic networks are structured interconnections of dynamical systems (modules) driven by external excitation and disturbance signals. In order to identify their dynamical properties and/or their topology consistently from measured data, we need to make sure that the network model set is identifiable. We introduce the notion of network identifiability, as a property of a parameterized model set, that ensures that different network models can be distinguished from each other when performing identification on the basis of measured data. Different from the classical notion of (parameter) identifiability, we focus on the distinction between network models in terms of their transfer functions. For a given structured model set with a pre-chosen topology, identifiability typically requires conditions on the presence and location of excitation signals, and on presence, location and correlation of disturbance signals. Because in a dynamic network, disturbances cannot always be considered to be of full-rank, the reduced-rank situation is also covered, meaning that the number of driving white noise processes can be strictly less than the number of disturbance variables. This includes the situation of having noise-free nodes.

International audienceThis paper addresses the problem of obtaining an estimate of a particular module of interest that is embedded in a dynamic network with known interconnection structure. In this paper it is shown that there is considerable freedom as to which variables can be included as inputs to the predictor, while still obtaining consistent estimates of the particular module of interest. This freedom is encoded into sufficient conditions on the set of predictor inputs that allow for consistent identification of the module. The conditions can be used to design a sensor placement scheme, or to determine whether it is possible to obtain consistent estimates while refraining from measuring particular variables in the network. As identification methods the Direct and Two Stage Prediction-Error methods are considered. Algorithms are presented for checking the conditions using tools from graph theory

Abstract-In many areas of signal, system, and control theory, orthogonal functions play an important role in issues of analysis and design. In this paper, it is shown that there exist orthogonal functions that, in a natural way, are generated by stable linear dynamical systems and that compose an orthonormal basis for the signal space e;. To this end, use is made of balanced realizations of inner transfer functions. The orthogonal functions can be considered as generalizations of, e.g., the pulse functions, Laguerre functions, and Kautz functions, and give rise to an alternative series expansion of rational transfer functions. It is shown how we can exploit these generalized basis functions to increase the speed of convergence in a series expansion, i.e., to obtain a good approximation by retaining only a finite number of expansion coefficients. Consequences for identification of expansion coefficients are analyzed, and a bound is formulated on the error that is made when approximating a system by a finite number of expansion coefficients.