Keynote Address 2: Identification of Nonlinear Systems

Abstract: Identification of non-linear dynamical systems is an important problem in many applications. The topic is substantially richer than linear system identification. One reason for this is of course that the problem is significantly more difficult, but also that it has engaged several different research communities. With origins in statistical non-linear and non-parametric regression theory, areas like neural networks and learning theory can now be seen as research fields in their own right. In addition to the control field, many areas like artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, signal processing, oceanography, geology, etc, have developed their own approaches to the problem. This has lead to a very substantial literature on the topic. This presentation will focus on some core features of the problem that represent the basic challanges. The common underlying ideas for the different approaches will also be displayed.

Biography: Lennart Ljung received his PhD in Automatic Control from Lund Institute of Technology in 1974. Since 1976 he is Professor of the chair of Automatic Control In Linkoping, Sweden, and is currently Director of the Competence Center "Information Systems for Industrial Control and Supervision" (ISIS). He has held visiting positions at Stanford and MIT and has written several books on System Identification and Estimation. He is an IEEE Fellow and an IFAC Advisor as well as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA), a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), an Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He has received honorary doctorates from the Baltic State Technical University in St Petersburg, from Uppsala University, Sweden, from the Technical University of Troyes, France, and from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2002 he received the Quazza Medal from IFAC, and in 2003 he received the Hendryk W. Bode Lecture Prize from the IEEE Control Systems Society.