<p>This report presents work done in the field of output error identification, with application to spark ignition (SI) engine identification for the purpose of air to fuel ratio control. The generic parts of the project consist mainly in setting out the basis for the design of output error identification software. Efficiency issues related to linear state space models have also been explored, and although the software design is not made explicit in this report, many of the important concepts have been implemented in order to provide powerful abstractions for the application to SI engine identification. </p><p>The SI engine identification data was obtained under normal operating conditions. The goal is to re- estimate models without utilizing a virtual measurement which has been used successfully to estimate models in the past. This turns out to be a difficult problem much related to the lack of excitation in the system input, shortcomings of the fuel dynamics model and the unknown and hard to estimate exhaust sensor characteristics. Indeed, the larger of the previously estimated models are found not to be identifiable in the present situation. However, trivial restrictions of the models (not meaning restriction to trivial models) avoid that problem.</p>

This report presents work done in the field of output error identification, with application to spark ignition (SI) engine identification for the purpose of air to fuel ratio control. The generic parts of the project consist mainly in setting out the basis for the design of output error identification software. Efficiency issues related to linear state space models have also been explored, and although the software design is not made explicit in this report, many of the important concepts have been implemented in order to provide powerful abstractions for the application to SI engine identification. The SI engine identification data was obtained under normal operating conditions. The goal is to re- estimate models without utilizing a virtual measurement which has been used successfully to estimate models in the past. This turns out to be a difficult problem much related to the lack of excitation in the system input, shortcomings of the fuel dynamics model and the unknown and hard to estimate exhaust sensor characteristics. Indeed, the larger of the previously estimated models are found not to be identifiable in the present situation. However, trivial restrictions of the models (not meaning restriction to trivial models) avoid that problem.

In modern manufacturing, industrial robots are essential components that allow saving cost, increase quality and productivity for instance. To achieve such goals, high accuracy and speed are simultaneously required. The design of control laws compliant with such requirements demands high-fidelity mathematical models of those robots. For this purpose, dynamic models are built from experimental data. The main objective of this thesis is thus to provide robotic engineers with automatic tools for identifying dynamic models of industrial robot arms. To achieve this aim, a comparative analysis of the existing methods dealing with robot identification is made. That allows discerning the advantages and the limitations of each method. From those observations, contributions are presented on three axes. First, the study focuses on the estimation of the joint velocities and accelerations from the measured position, which is required for the model construction. The usual method is based on a home-made prefiltering process that needs a reliable knowledge of the system’s bandwidths, whereas the system is still unknown. To overcome this dilemma, we propose a method able to estimate the joint derivatives automatically, without any setting from the user. The second axis is dedicated to the identification of the controller. For the vast majority of the method its knowledge is indeed required. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, that is not always available to the user. To deal with this issue, two methods are suggested. Their basic philosophy is to identify the control law in a first step before identifying the dynamic model of the robot in a second one. The first method consists in identifying the control law in a parametric way, whereas the second one relies on a non-parametric identification. Finally, the third axis deals with the home-made setting of the decimate filter. The identification of the noise filter is introduced similarly to methods developed in the system identification community. This allows estimating automatically the dynamic parameters with low covariance and it brings some information about the noise circulation through the closed-loop system. All the proposed methodologies are validated on an industrial robot with 6 degrees of freedom. Perspectives are outlined for future developments on robotic systems identification and other complex problems.

This thesis describes the development of a nonlinear flight dynamics model for a small, fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Models developed for UAVs can be used for many applications including risk analysis, controls system design and flight simulators. Several challenges exist for system identification of small, low-cost aircraft including an increased sensitivity to atmospheric disturbances and decreased data quality from a cost-appropriate instrumentation system. These challenges result in difficulties in development of the model structure and parameter estimation. The small size may also limit the scope of flight test experiments and the consequent information content of the data from which the model is developed. Methods are presented to improve the accuracy of system identification which include data selection, data conditioning, incorporation of information from computational aerodynamics and synthesis of information from different flight test maneuvers. The final parameter estimation and uncertainty analysis was developed from the time domain formulation of the output-error method using the fully nonlinear aircraft equations of motion and a nonlinear aerodynamic model structure. The methods discussed increased the accuracy of parameter estimates and lowered the uncertainty in estimates compared to standard procedures for parameter estimation from flight test data. The significant contributions of this thesis are a detailed explanation of the entire system identification process tailored to the needs of a small UAV and incorporation of unique procedures to enhance identification results. This work may be used as a guide and list of recommendations for future system identification efforts of small, low-cost, minimally instrumented, fixed-wing UAVs. / MS / This thesis describes identification of a series of equations to model the flight motion of a small unmanned airplane. Model development for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a challenging process because they are significantly affected by small amounts of wind and they usually contain inexpensive, lower quality sensors. This results in lower quality data measured from flying a small UAV, which is subsequently used in the process to develop a model for the aircraft. In this work, techniques are discussed to improve estimation of model parameters and increase confidence in the validity of the final model. The significant contributions of this thesis are a comprehensive explanation of the model development process specific to a small UAV and implementation of unique procedures to enhance the resulting model. This work as a whole may be used as a guide and list of recommendations for future model development efforts of small, low-cost, unmanned aircraft.

Aircraft system identification has been widely used to this day in applications like control law design, building simulators or extending flight envelopes. It can also be utilized for determining flight-mechanical characteristics in the preliminary design phase of a flight vehicle. In this thesis, three common time-domain methods were implemented in MATLAB for determining the aerodynamic derivatives of a subscale aircraft. For parameter estimation, the equation-error method is quick, robust and can provide good parameter estimates on its own. The output-error method is computationally intensive but keeps account of the aircraft's evolution in time, being more suitable for fine-tuning predictive models. A new model structure is identified using multivariate orthogonal functions with a predicted squared error stopping criteria. This method is based on linear regression (equation-error). The code written is flexible and can also be used for other aircraft and with other aerodynamic models. Simulations are compared with experimental data from a previous flight test campaign for validation. In the future, this tool may help taking decisions in conceptual design after a prototype is tested.

L’industrie moderne fait largement appel à des robots industriels afin de réduire les coûts, ou encore améliorer la productivité et la qualité par exemple. Pour ce faire, une haute précision et une grande vitesse sont simultanément nécessaires. La conception de lois de commande conformes à de telles exigences demande une modélisation mathématique précise de ces robots. A cette fin, des modèles dynamiques sont construits à partir de données expérimentales. L’objectif de cette thèse est ainsi de fournir aux ingénieurs roboticiens des outils automatiques pour l’identification de bras robotiques. Dans cette perspective, une analyse comparative des méthodes existantes pour l’identification de robot est réalisée. Les avantages et inconvénients de chaque méthode sont ainsi mis en exergue. À partir de ces observations, les contributions sont articulées selon trois axes. Premièrement, l’étude porte sur l’estimation des vitesses et accélérations des corps du robot à partir de la position mesurée. Ces informations sont en effet nécessaires à la construction du modèle. La méthode usuelle est basée sur prétraitement "sur mesure" qui requière une connaissance fiable des bande-passantes du système, alors que celui-ci est encore inconnu. Pour surmonter ce dilemme, nous proposons une méthode capable d’estimer les dérivées automatiquement sans réglage préalable par l’utilisateur. Le deuxième axe concerne l’identification du contrôleur. Sa connaissance est en effet requise par la grande majorité des méthodes d’identification. Malheureusement, pour des raisons de propriété industrielle, il n’est pas toujours accessible. Pour traiter ce problème, deux méthodes sont introduites. Leur principe de base est d’identifier la loi de commande dans un premier temps avant d’identifier le modèle dynamique du bras robotique dans un second temps. La première méthode consiste à identifier la loi de commande de manière paramétrique, alors que la seconde fait appel à une identification non-paramétrique. Finalement, le troisième axe porte sur le réglage "sur mesure" du filtre decimate. L’identification du filtre de bruit est introduite en s’inspirant des méthodes développées par la communauté d’identification de systèmes. Ceci permet l’estimation automatique des paramètres dynamiques avec de faibles covariances tout en apportant une connaissance concernant la circulation du bruit à travers le système en boucle-fermée. Toutes les méthodes proposées sont validées sur un robot industriel à six degrés de liberté. Des perspectives sont esquissées pour de futurs travaux portant sur l’identification de systèmes robotiques, voire d’autres applications. / In modern manufacturing, industrial robots are essential components that allow saving cost, increase quality and productivity for instance. To achieve such goals, high accuracy and speed are simultaneously required. The design of control laws compliant with such requirements demands high-fidelity mathematical models of those robots. For this purpose, dynamic models are built from experimental data. The main objective of this thesis is thus to provide robotic engineers with automatic tools for identifying dynamic models of industrial robot arms. To achieve this aim, a comparative analysis of the existing methods dealing with robot identification is made. That allows discerning the advantages and the limitations of each method. From those observations, contributions are presented on three axes. First, the study focuses on the estimation of the joint velocities and accelerations from the measured position, which is required for the model construction. The usual method is based on a home-made prefiltering process that needs a reliable knowledge of the system’s bandwidths, whereas the system is still unknown. To overcome this dilemma, we propose a method able to estimate the joint derivatives automatically, without any setting from the user. The second axis is dedicated to the identification of the controller. For the vast majority of the method its knowledge is indeed required. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, that is not always available to the user. To deal with this issue, two methods are suggested. Their basic philosophy is to identify the control law in a first step before identifying the dynamic model of the robot in a second one. The first method consists in identifying the control law in a parametric way, whereas the second one relies on a non-parametric identification. Finally, the third axis deals with the home-made setting of the decimate filter. The identification of the noise filter is introduced similarly to methods developed in the system identification community. This allows estimating automatically the dynamic parameters with low covariance and it brings some information about the noise circulation through the closed-loop system. All the proposed methodologies are validated on an industrial robot with 6 degrees of freedom. Perspectives are outlined for future developments on robotic systems identification and other complex problems.

The thesis deals with aerodynamic characteristics identification from flight measurement. The topic is part of flight mechanic – handling qualities. The first theoretic part consists of three identification methods description: Error equation method, Output error method and Filter error method. Mathematical model of an airplane is defined and restricted to the motion with 3 degree of freedom. There is also introduced simulation of flight measurement for identification software validation. Practical part is focused on experiment preparation, execution and evaluation. The airplane VUT 700 Specto had been chosen to carry out flight tests. The airplane was modified to the new electric powered VUT 700e Specto after first measurement flights with combustion engine. Data record from on-board measurement unit was completed by telemetric data from autopilot and remote control system. Flight tests were carried out in stabilised mode of autopilot in symmetric flight. The results were confronted with analytical analysis results and DATCOM+ software parameter estimation.

The thesis deals with aerodynamic characteristics identification from flight measurement. The topic is part of flight mechanic – handling qualities. The first theoretic part consists of three identification methods description: Error equation method, Output error method and Filter error method. Mathematical model of an airplane is defined and restricted to the motion with 3 degree of freedom. There is also introduced simulation of flight measurement for identification software validation. Practical part is focused on experiment preparation, execution and evaluation. The airplane VUT 700 Specto had been chosen to carry out flight tests. The airplane was modified to the new electric powered VUT 700e Specto after first measurement flights with combustion engine. Data record from on-board measurement unit was completed by telemetric data from autopilot and remote control system. Flight tests were carried out in stabilised mode of autopilot in symmetric flight. The results were confronted with analytical analysis results and DATCOM+ software parameter estimation.

Les travaux de recherche présentés dans ce mémoire concernent des contributions à l'identification paramétrique de modèles à temps continu. La première contribution est le développement d'une méthode à erreur de sortie appliquée à des modèles linéaires, en boucle ouverte et en boucle fermée. Les algorithmes sont présentés pour des modèles à temps continu, en utilisant une approche hors ligne ou récursive. La méthode est étendue à l'identification de systèmes linéaires comprenant un retard pur. La méthode développée est appliquée à différents systèmes et comparée aux méthodes d'identification existantes. La deuxième contribution est le développement d'une nouvelle approche d'identification de systèmes à boucles imbriquées. Cette approche est développée pour l'identification de systèmes électromécaniques. Elle se base sur l'utilisation d'un modèle d'identification paramétrique générique d'entraînements électromécaniques en boucle fermée, sur la connaissance du profil des lois de mouvement appliquées appelées excitations, et sur l'analyse temporelle de signaux internes et leurs corrélations avec les paramètres à identifier. L'approche est développée dans le cadre de l'identification d'entraînements à courant continu et synchrone. L'application de cette approche est effectuée au travers de simulations et de tests expérimentaux. Les résultats sont comparés à des méthodes d'identification classiques. / The research works presented in this thesis are about contributions in continuous time model parametric identication. The rst work is the development of an output error method applied on linear models, in open and closed loop. The algorithms are presented for continuous time models, using in-line or oine approaches. The method is extended to the case of the linear systems containing pure time delay. The developed method is applied to several systems and compared to the best existing methods. The second contribution is the development of a new identication approach for cascaded loop systems. This approach is developed for identifying electromechanical systems. It is based on the use of a generic parametric model of electromechanical drives in closed loop, on the knowledge of the movement laws applied and called excitations, and on the analyse of the time internal signals and their correlations with the parameters to identify. This approach is developed for identifying direct current and synchronous drives. The approach is applied with simulations and experimental tests. The obtained results are compared to best identifying known methods.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-17T14:53:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jorge Farid Amate.pdf: 1076998 bytes, checksum: 7c54d6bc2833288f1945368aa6976936 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-06 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / In industrial processes, where parameters estimation and standard recognition are desired, digital filters technology is used to do estimation. The digital filter is responsible for prediction and filtering process. Then, the filter behavior can be analyzed based on performance, gains and others variables linked to the specified model. However, to obtain trusty variables and data to estimate the process in question, a model that represents well the physics plant is needed. To do this, are applied techniques based on Systems Identification where we obtain the ARX, ARMAX, Output-Error and Box-Jenkins models of the electrolytic pot. Results, validation and their analysis, applied in standard recognition, using different structures are presented. / Em processos industriais, onde deseja-se a estimação de parâmetros e reconhecimento de padrões, utiliza-se da tecnologia de filtros digitais para tal fim. O filtro digital é responsável pelo processo de predição e filtragem. Assim, pode-se fazer uma análise do comportamento do filtro baseada no desempenho, ganhos e outras variáveis ligadas ao modelo especificado. Porém, para obtenção de variáveis e dados confiáveis para estimar-se o processo em questão, necessita-se de um modelo que represente bem a planta física. Para isto, são aplicadas técnicas baseadas em Identificação de Sistemas, onde são obtidos os modelos ARX, ARMAX, Output-Error e Box-Jenkins da cuba eletrolítica. São apresentados os resultados, validações dos modelos e análise dos mesmos, aplicados ao reconhecimento de padrões, utilizando-se diferentes estruturas.