A Nonparametric Approach to Model Error Modeling

To validate an estimated model and evaluate its reliability is an important part of the system identification process. Recent work on model validation has shown that the use of explicit model error models provide a better way of visualizing the possible deficiencies of the nominal model. Previous contributions have mainly focused on parametric black-box models for estimating the error model. However, this requires that a correct model order for the error model has to be selected. Here we suggest an adaptive and nonparametric frequency-domain method that estimates the frequency response of the model error by an automatic procedure. A benefit with this approach is that the tuning can be done locally, i.e., that different resolutions can be used in different frequency bands. The ideas are based on local polynomial regression and utilize a statistical criterion for selecting the optimal resolution.