A different route to identification of time-invariant linear systems has been recently proposed which does not require committing to a specific parametric model structure. Impulse responses are described in a nonparametric Bayesian framework as zero-mean Gaussian processes. Their covariances are given by the so-called stable spline kernels encoding information on regularity and BIBO stability. In this paper, we demonstrate that these kernels also lead to a new family of radial basis functions kernels suitable to model system components subject to disturbances given by filtered white noise. This novel class, in cooperation with the stable spline kernels, paves the way to a new approach to solve missing data problems in both discrete and continuous-time settings. Numerical experiments show that the new technique may return models more predictive than those obtained by standard parametric Prediction Error Methods, also when these latter exploit the full data set.
This article introduces the Tensor Network B-spline model for the regularized identification of nonlinear systems using a nonlinear autoregressive exogenous (NARX) approach. Tensor network theory is used to alleviate the curse of dimensionality of multivariate B-splines by representing the high-dimensional weight tensor as a low-rank approximation. An iterative algorithm based on the alternating linear scheme is developed to directly estimate the low-rank tensor network approximation, removing the need to ever explicitly construct the exponentially large weight tensor. This reduces the computa…
Identification of the so-called dynamic networks is one of the most challenging problems appeared recently in control literature. Such systems consist of large-scale interconnected systems, also called modules. To recover full networks dynamics the two crucial steps are topology detection, where one has to infer from data which connections are active, and modules estimation. Since a small percentage of connections are effective in many real systems, the problem finds also fundamental connections with group-sparse estimation. In particular, in the linear setting modules correspond to unknown im…
In order to identify one system (module) in an interconnected dynamic network, one typically has to solve a Multi-Input-Single-Output (MISO) identification problem that requires identification of all modules in the MISO setup. For application of a parametric identification method this would require estimating a large number of parameters, as well as an appropriate model order selection step for a possibly large scale MISO problem, thereby increasing the computational complexity of the identification algorithm to levels that are beyond feasibility. An alternative identification approach is pres…
In order to identify a system (module) embedded in a dynamic network, one has to formulate a multiple-input estimation problem that necessitates certain nodes to be measured and included as predictor inputs. However, some of these nodes may not be measurable in many practical cases due to sensor selection and placement issues. This may result in biased estimates of the target module. Furthermore, the identification problem associated with the multiple-input structure may require determining a large number of parameters that are not of particular interest to the experimenter, with increased com…
We consider the identification of large-scale linear and stable dynamic systems whose outputs may be the result of many correlated inputs. Hence, severe ill-conditioning may affect the estimation problem. This is a scenario often arising when modeling complex physical systems given by the interconnection of many sub-units where feedback and algebraic loops can be encountered. We develop a strategy based on Bayesian regularization where any impulse response is modeled as the realization of a zero-mean Gaussian process. The stable spline covariance is used to include information on smooth expone…
Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）；University of Padova（帕多瓦大学）
Many problems arising in control require the determination of a mathematical model of the application. This has often to be performed starting from input-output data, leading to a task known as system identification in the engineering literature. One emerging topic in this field is estimation of networks consisting of several interconnected dynamic systems. We consider the linear setting assuming that system outputs are the result of many correlated inputs, hence making system identification severely ill-conditioned. This is a scenario often encountered when modeling complex cybernetics system…
