Optimal Experiment Design for the Identification of One Module in the Interconnection of Locally Controlled Systems

In this paper, we consider the problem of designing the least costly experiment that leads to a sufficiently accurate estimate of one module in a network of locally controlled systems. A module in such a network can be identified by exciting the corresponding local closed loop system. Such an excitation signal will not only perturb the input/output of the to-be-identified module, but also other modules due to the interconnection. Consequently, the cost of the identification can be expressed as the sum of the influence of the excitation signal on the inputs and outputs of all locally controlled systems. We develop a methodology to design the spectrum of the excitation signal in such a way that this cost is minimized while guaranteeing a certain accuracy for the identified model. We also propose an alternative identification configuration which can further reduce the propagation of the excitation signal to other modules and we make steps to robustify this optimal experiment design problem with respect to the cost of the identification.