Data-driven modeling with prior system knowledge

Journal Article (2026)
Author(s)

Fritz A. Engeln (TU Delft - Team Jan-Willem van Wingerden)

Jan Willem van Wingerden (TU Delft - Team Jan-Willem van Wingerden)

Timm Faulwasser (Hamburg University of Technology)

DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacsc.2026.100384 Final published version
More Info
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Publication Year
2026
Language
English
Journal title
IFAC Journal of Systems and Control
Volume number
35
Article number
100384
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12
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Abstract

The behavior of a linear time-invariant system can be characterized entirely by measured input–output data that spans the vector space of all possible trajectories of the system relying on the fundamental lemma by Willems et al. However, useful a priori knowledge of the system is usually neglected. We propose a novel method for incorporating prior knowledge, specifically, known pole and zero locations, into a data-driven representation by constructing filters that pre-process the measured input–output data. To this end, a physics-informed data-driven predictor is introduced, where trajectories are obtained as linear combinations of the columns of a filtered block-Hankel matrix. We explicitly derive the output prediction error and show how leveraging prior knowledge reduces the impact of future noise realizations on output predictions and improves the accuracy of the initial state that is inferred from past data.