Multisensor fusion for system identification

Abstract

System identification is a fundamental process for developing a numerical model of a physical structure. The system identification process typically involves in data acquisition; particularly in civil engineering applications accelerometers are preferred due to its cost-effectiveness, low noise, and installation convenience. Because the measured acceleration responses result in translational degrees of freedom (DOF) in the numerical model, moment-resisting structures such as beam and plate are not appropriately represented by the models. This study suggests a system identification process that considers both translational and rotational DOFs by using accelerometers and gyroscopes. The proposed approach suggests a systematic way of obtaining dynamic characteristics as well as flexibility matrix from two different measurements of acceleration and angular velocity. Numerical simulation and laboratory experiment are conducted to validate the efficacy of the proposed system identification process.