Page 17 - Classification Parameter Estimation & State Estimation An Engg Approach Using MATLAB

6 INTRODUCTION

level sensor

canal 1
canal 2
canal 3
drain

5.8
level (cm)
5.6 measured,
canal 1
5.4
5.2
estimated, canal 3
5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
time (hr)
Figure 1.3 Assessment of water levels in a water management system: a state
estimation problem (the data is obtained from a scale model)

1.1.4 Relations between the subjects

The reader who is familiar with one or more of the three subjects might
wonder why they are treated in one book. The three subjects share the
following factors:

. In all cases, the engineer designs an instrument, i.e. a system whose
task is to extract information about a real-world object, a physical
process or an event.
. For that purpose, the instrument will be provided with a sensory sub-
system that produces measurement signals. In all cases, these signals are
represented by vectors (with fixed dimension) or sequences of vectors.
. The measurement vectors must be processed to reveal the informa-
tion that is required for the task at hand.
. Allthreesubjectsrelyontheavailabilityofmodelsdescribingtheobject/
physical process/event, and of models describing the sensory system.
. Modelling is an important part of the design stage. The suitability
of the applied model is directly related to the performance of the
resulting classifier/estimator.