Category Archives: System modeling

Neural Networks. Controls, and System Identification

The current engineer atmosphere is buzzing about Neural Networks. The downside is that Neural Networks do not have a structure that is easily understandable and interpretable. When we can understand the physic mechanisms, Neural Networks should not be your first choice, in my opinion.

The links below take you directly to the start of the pertinent question(s). Among the two controls authors, they agree we can do the same or better than Neural Networks. Gene Morelli is from NASA. Stephen Boyd is from Standford.

Gene Morelli from NASA responds about Neural Networks. The video jumps to the start of this question at 1:19:43, and the question is finished at 1:21:30. The total question time is 1:47.

Stephen Boyd Response to Neural Network Use in Optimization and Control Question starts at 1:40:48. It gets interesting at 1:43:15. The question concludes at 1:44:47. The total question time is 3:59.

The counterpoint to my viewpoint is Chris Rackauckas’s Automated Discovery of Mechanistic Models via Universal Differential Equations. Sometime in the future, Neural Networks may dominate. For now, I don’t see it this way and think controls engineers should use other methods if they can understand their system.

System Identification Resources

What is System Identification? System Identification Wikipedia

Books

Lennart, Ljung. “System identification: theory for the user.” PTR Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ 28 (1999). Errata can be found here.

Juang, Jer-Nan. Applied system identification. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1994.

Morelli, Eugene A., and Vladislav Klein. Aircraft system identification: theory and practice. Vol. 2. Williamsburg, VA: Sunflyte Enterprises, 2016.

Soderstrom and P. Stoica, System Identification, Prentice Hall. 1989 (available for download from the author’s website)

Brunton, Steven L., and J. Nathan Kutz. Data-driven science and engineering: Machine learning, dynamical systems, and control. Cambridge University Press, 2022. Available here: https://www.databookuw.com/

I have created a list of system identification books via WorldCat. WorldCat allows you to search libraries across the wold. WorldCat Book List.

Researchers

Google Scholar search by System Identification label.

Online Course

System Identification by Roy Stephen Smith from ETH Zürich. Video lectures only. At the time of writing this, a course webpage that is more current than the lectures can be found here.

System Identification and Parameter Estimation from TUDelft OpenCourseWare. Has videos.

System Identification at Linköping University. Not an online course but gives a recommended schedule of lectures and readings. To preserve this information for the future, a screenshot is below of the schedule.

Lecture notes and recordings for ECE5560: System Identification. Uses Lennart Ljung’s book.

System Identification IIT Madras, Prof. Dr. Arun K.Tangirala. Video lectures are available.

System Identification via MIT OpenCourseWare – This course uses Lennart Ljung’s Book. No videos. A syllabus (outline), calendar, lecture notes, and assignments are available.

System identification: parametric approach an approximate 27-hour (English) lecture series on system identification using parametric approaches. See the selected topics and handouts at http://jitkomut.eng.chula.ac.th/ee531… Instructor: Jitkomut Songsiri, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Identification, Estimation, and Learning MIT 2.160
2.160 Identification, Estimation, and Learning Youtube
2.160 Identification, Estimation, and Learning Panopto Video
https://darbelofflab.mit.edu/teaching/ Slides and Notes can be obtained from links on this page.

Videos

Technical Seminar: ‘Quest for Aircraft Stability and Control’ by Eugene Morelli. Testing of full-scale aircraft in flight to validate or improve predictions obtained through wind tunnel testing or CFD calculations is expensive and time-consuming. Being able to test aircraft stability and control using real-time onboard computations is now within reach and has far-reaching implications for efficient flight testing, control system design, aircraft health monitoring, pilot training, aircraft fleet maintenance, and safety. Aired May 18, 2007.

Introduction to System Identification. An introduction to System Identification with the System Identification Toolbox in MATLAB. Lennart Ljung is the presenter.

Linear system identification video lecture – YouTube playlist. The video course “System identification – linear theory” introduces the student to linear system identification techniques based on data-driven modeling techniques. The focus lies on experiment design, understanding and selecting model structures, and computing the best model within the model set using prediction error methods and model validation.

System Identification. Videos by Brian Douglas. Throughout the series, see the system identification workflow through several different examples that highlight the importance of data collection, model selection, model fitting, and model validation in MATLAB with the System Identification Toolbox.

Software

MathWorks System Identification Toolbox This one is written by Lenart Ljung at least initially. His book is linked above. Uses Lennart Ljung’s book.

System/Observer/Controller Identification Toolbox (SOCIT) This one is written at least initially by Jer-Nan Juang; his book is linked above. This is free but export-controlled.
SOCIT is a collection of functions, written in MATLAB language and expressed in M-files, that implements a variety of modern system identification techniques. For an open-loop system, it features functions for identification of a system model and corresponding forward and backward observers directly from input and output data. For a closed-loop system, SOCIT identifies an open-loop model, an observer, and a corresponding controller gained directly from input and output data.

System IDentification Programs for AirCraft (SIDPAC) This one is written and maintained by Gene Morelli. His book is linked above. It is free and allowed for foreign use (not export controlled).
Written in MATLAB, SIDPAC is a collection of over 300 programs that perform a wide variety of tasks related to system identification applied to aircraft. SIDPAC includes tools for experiment design, data analysis, kinematic consistency checking, static and dynamic modeling, simulation, numerical integration and differentiation, smoothing, filtering, finite Fourier transformation, statistical modeling and evaluation, optimization, parameter estimation, model accuracy quantification, model validation, and more.

Github Repositories

Mataveid System identification toolbox for GNU Octave and MATLAB was written by Daniel Mårtensson. It is mostly based on Applied System Identification.

More to come here….

Links

Database for the Identification of Systems (DaISy)

TEACHING SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION. GOALS AND FORMATS FOR DIFFERENT COURSES. Paper by Lennart Ljung

Transmission Line Method

Transmission Line Method (TLM) or Transmission Line Matrix method is an elegant technique used to solve lossless or lossy wave equations. Here I am gathering together resources on the topic since I have found it is not well studied in the US.

Books

Christopoulos, Christos. “The transmission-line modeling (TLM) method in electromagnetics.” Synthesis Lectures on Computational Electromagnetics 1.1 (2005): 1-132. ISBN: 1598290509

This book is focused on the point of view of electrical engineering.

De Cogan, Donard. Transmission line matrix (TLM) techniques for diffusion applications. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1998. ISBN: 978-9056991296

De Cogan, Donard, William J. O’Connor, and Susan Pulko. Transmission line matrix (TLM) in computational mechanics. CRC Press, 2005. ISBN: 978-0415327176

This is the book I found easiest to read from a Mechanical Engineering perspective. The book starts by looking at the wave equation in 1D. It uses the ideas of boundary conditions to explain the scattering effect that occurs in TLM. It is an easy read for an engineer who has studied the wave equation before.

Papers

Webpages

http://dandadec.com/what-is-tlm/ – This page is Donard De Cogan’s page. Donard’s website has lots of information on TLM such as conferences and papers.