Data-driven estimation of system norms is essential for analyzing, verifying, and designing control systems. Existing data-based methods often do not capture the inter-grid and transient behavior of the system, leading to inaccurate and unreliable system norm estimations. This paper presents a unified approach for accurate and reliable estimation of the H₂ and H_∞ norm with a limited amount of data. The key step is to exploit local parametric models that explicitly incorporate the inter-grid and transient dynamics. The system norm is estimated through the computation of local system norms of the local parametric models within their the local frequency interval. Simulation and experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

When identifying electrical, mechanical, or biological systems, parametric continuous-time identification methods can lead to interpretable and parsimonious models when the model structure aligns with the physical properties of the system. Traditional linear system identification may not consider the most parsimonious model when relying solely on unfactored transfer functions, which typically result from standard direct approaches. This paper presents a novel identification method that delivers additive models for both open and closed-loop setups. The estimators that are derived are shown to be generically consistent, and can admit the identification of marginally stable additive systems. Numerical simulations show the efficacy of the proposed approach, and its performance in identifying a modal representation of a flexible beam is verified using experimental data.

Iterative feedback tuning (IFT) enables the tuning of feedback controllers using only measured data to obtain the gradient of a cost criterion. The aim of this paper is to reduce the required number of experiments for MIMO IFT. It is shown that, through a randomization technique, an unbiased gradient estimate can be obtained from a single dedicated experiment, regardless of the size of the MIMO system. The gradient estimate is used in a stochastic gradient descent algorithm. The approach is experimentally validated on a mechatronic system, showing a significantly reduced number of experiments compared to standard IFT.

Disturbances in iterative learning control (ILC) may be amplified if these vary from one iteration to the next, and reducing this amplification typically reduces the convergence speed. The aim of this paper is to resolve this trade-off and achieve fast convergence, robustness and small converged errors in ILC. A nonlinear learning approach is presented that uses the difference in amplitude characteristics of repeating and varying disturbances to adapt the learning gain. Monotonic convergence of the nonlinear ILC algorithm is established, resulting in a systematic design procedure. Application of the proposed algorithm demonstrates both fast convergence and small errors.

Frequency-domain performance analysis of intersample behavior in sampled-data and multirate systems is challenging due to the lack of a frequency-separation principle, and systematic identification techniques are lacking. The aim of this paper is to develop an efficient technique for identifying the full intersample performance in the frequency-domain for closed-loop multirate systems, in particular the Performance Frequency Gain (PFG). Through local modeling techniques, aliased frequency components are effectively disentangled when identifying the PFG, which is directly facilitated by frequency-lifting the multirate system to a multivariable time-invariant representation. The developed method accurately and directly identifies the PFG in a single identification experiment. Finally, the developed method is experimentally validated on a prototype motion system, showing accurate identification of frequency-domain representations for the multirate system, including the PFG.

The increasing demands for high accuracy in mechatronic systems necessitate the incorporation of parameter variations in feedforward control. The aim of this paper is to develop a data-driven approach for direct learning of parameter-varying feedforward control to increase tracking performance. The developed approach is based on kernel-regularized function estimation in conjunction with iterative learning to directly learn parameter-varying feedforward control from data. This approach enables high tracking performance for feedforward control of linear parameter-varying dynamics, providing flexibility to varying reference tasks. The developed framework is validated on a benchmark industrial experimental setup featuring a belt-driven carriage.

Increasingly stringent performance requirements for motion systems necessitate explicit control of the flexible dynamic behavior. The aim of this paper is to present an approach to identify spatio-temporal models of overactuated mechatronic systems with a limited number of spatially distributed sensors. The proposed approach exploits the modal modeling framework and exploits the symmetry in modal models to enhance the spatial resolution of the identified spatially-sampled modal models. Spatio-temporal models are identified by updating prior finite element method-based models based on the identified extended modal models. The experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for the identification of complex position-dependent mechanical systems.

Multivariable parametric models are critical for designing, controlling, and optimizing the performance of engineered systems. The main aim of this letter is to develop a parametric identification strategy that delivers accurate and physically relevant models of multivariable systems using time-domain data. The introduced approach adopts an additive model structure, providing a parsimonious and interpretable representation of many physical systems, and applies a refined instrumental variable-based estimation algorithm. The developed identification method enables the estimation of multivariable parametric additive models in continuous time and is applicable to both open- and closed-loop systems. The performance of the estimator is demonstrated through numerical simulations and experimentally validated on a flexible beam system.

Models that contain intersample behavior are important for control design of systems with slow-rate outputs. The aim of this paper is to develop a system identification technique for fast-rate models of systems where only slow-rate output measurements are available, e.g., vision-in-the-loop systems. In this paper, the intersample response is estimated by identifying fast-rate models through least-squares criteria, and the limitations of these models are determined. In addition, a method is developed that surpasses these limitations and is capable of estimating unique fast-rate models of arbitrary order by regularizing the least-squares estimate. The developed method utilizes fast-rate inputs and slow-rate output measurements and identifies fast-rate models accurately in a single identification experiment. Finally, both simulation and experimental validation on a prototype wafer stage demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework.

Online system identification algorithms are widely used for monitoring, diagnostics and control by continuously adapting to time-varying dynamics. Typically, these algorithms consider a model structure that lacks parsimony and offers limited physical interpretability. The objective of this paper is to develop a real-time parameter estimation algorithm aimed at identifying time-varying dynamics within an interpretable model structure. An additive model structure is adopted for this purpose, which offers enhanced parsimony and is shown to be particularly suitable for mechanical systems. The proposed approach integrates the recursive simplified refined instrumental variable method with block-coordinate descent to minimize an exponentially-weighted output error cost function. This novel recursive identification method delivers parametric continuous-time additive models and is applicable in both open-loop and closed-loop controlled systems. Its efficacy is shown using numerical simulations and is further validated using experimental data to detect the time-varying resonance dynamics of a flexible beam system. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for online and interpretable estimation for advanced monitoring and control applications.

The kernel-based inverse system identification framework enables accurate identification of systems with non-minimum phase dynamics, greatly expanding the potential of non-causal system identification approaches. The existing kernel-based inverse system identification method performs the estimation assuming noisy input data, while in practice noise is typically present only in the output measurements. To address this impracticality, we propose a Bayesian identification method that employs the Expectation-Maximization algorithm and the Markov chain Monte Carlo method to enable direct identification of the inverse system using the available data. Through numerical simulations, we found that the proposed method allows for an accurate estimation of inverse models, and outperforms an indirect approach in both model fit and variance. The proposed method can be used to develop enhanced data-driven feedforward control methods that allow for flexible design while incorporating design specifications.

Accurately modeling nonlinearities is becoming increasingly important for mechanical systems, particularly in the context of system design, model-based control and monitoring systems for fault diagnosis. In the nonlinear modeling process, a pivotal phase involves pinpointing the physical locations and quantifying the magnitude of nonlinearities. This paper introduces a data-driven approach for nonlinearity location and quantification by analyzing nonparametric frequency response functions. To achieve this objective, measurement locations in mechanical systems are interpreted as nodes arranged in a dynamic network, and linearization techniques are employed on the frequency response functions formed from node to node. The efficacy of the proposed approach and the concept of nonlinearity localization and quantification are illustrated by numerical simulations and experiments on a flexible beam setup.

Iterative learning control (ILC) is typically applied in practice combined with a feedback controller for time-domain stability. In this closed-loop design with actuator constraints, existing constrained ILC designs suffer from determining the exact input constraint on the ILC controller. This issue brings in an important gap between the existing constrained ILC designs and their real-world applications. This paper gives a systematic consideration of the input constraint problem in the closed-loop ILC design with actuator saturation. A constraint-aware ILC is developed to autonomously determine the constraint on the feedforward controller. The convergence of the constrained ILC process is proved under the framework of alternating projection. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed method is verified on a numerical simulation.

Iterative learning control (ILC) techniques are capable of improving the tracking performance of control systems that repeatedly perform similar tasks by utilizing data from past iterations. The aim of this paper is to achieve both the task flexibility enabled by ILC with basis functions and the performance of frequency-domain ILC, with an intuitive design procedure. The cost function of norm-optimal ILC is determined that recovers frequency-domain ILC, and consequently, the feedforward signal is parameterized in terms of basis functions and frequency-domain ILC. The resulting method has the performance and design procedure of frequency-domain ILC and the task flexibility of basis functions ILC, and are complimentary to each other. Validation on a benchmark example confirms the capabilities of the framework.