Niklas Everitt

Niklas Everitt, Giulio Bottegal, Håkan Hjalmarsson

We present a new method of identifying a specific module in a dynamic network, possibly with feedback loops. Assuming known topology, we express the dynamics by an acyclic network composed of two blocks where the first block accounts for the relation between the known reference signals and the input to the target module, while the second block contains the target module. Using an empirical Bayes approach, we model the first block as a Gaussian vector with covariance matrix (kernel) given by the recently introduced stable spline kernel. The parameters of the target module are estimated by solving a marginal likelihood problem with a novel iterative scheme based on the Expectation-Maximization algorithm. Additionally, we extend the method to include additional measurements downstream of the target module. Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques, it is shown that the same iterative scheme can solve also this formulation. Numerical experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Niklas Everitt, Giulio Bottegal, Cristian R. Rojas et al.

Substantial improvement in accuracy of identified linear time-invariant single-input multi-output (SIMO) dynamical models is possible when the disturbances affecting the output measurements are spatially correlated. Using an orthogonal representation for the modules composing the SIMO structure, in this paper we show that the variance of a parameter estimate of a module is dependent on the model structure of the other modules, and the correlation structure of the disturbances. In addition, we quantify the variance-error for the parameter estimates for finite model orders, where the effect of noise correlation structure, model structure and signal spectra are visible. From these results, we derive the noise correlation structure under which the mentioned model parameterization gives the lowest variance, when one module is identified using less parameters than the other modules.

Niklas Everitt, Miguel Galrinho, Håkan Hjalmarsson

In system identification, it is often difficult to find a physical intuition to choose a noise model structure. The importance of this choice is that, for the prediction error method (PEM) to provide asymptotically efficient estimates, the model orders must be chosen according to the true system. However, if only the plant estimates are of interest and the experiment is performed in open loop, the noise model may be over-parameterized without affecting the asymptotic properties of the plant. The limitation is that, as PEM suffers in general from non-convexity, estimating an unnecessarily large number of parameters will increase the chances of getting trapped in local minima. To avoid this, a high order ARX model can first be estimated by least squares, providing non-parametric estimates of the plant and noise model. Then, model order reduction can be used to obtain a parametric model of the plant only. We review existing methods to perform this, pointing out limitations and connections between them. Then, we propose a method that connects favorable properties from the previously reviewed approaches. We show that the proposed method provides asymptotically efficient estimates of the plant with open loop data. Finally, we perform a simulation study, which suggests that the proposed method is competitive with PEM and other similar methods.

Miguel Galrinho, Niklas Everitt, Håkan Hjalmarsson

High-order ARX models can be used to approximate a quite general class of linear systems in a parametric model structure, and well-established methods can then be used to retrieve the true plant and noise models from the ARX polynomials. However, this commonly used approach is only valid when the plant is stable or if the unstable poles are shared with the true noise model. In this contribution, we generalize this approach to allow the unstable poles not to be shared, by introducing modifications to correctly retrieve the noise model and noise variance.