A new approach for modeling hybrid systems based on the minimization of parameter transition in linear time-varying models

Since the methods for modeling piece-wise affine systems from its I/O data often require massive computation power and could be infeasible in realistic situations, we propose a new approach for modeling hybrid systems which are similar to piece-wise affine systems. In the approach, time-domain consistency of system parameters is utilized for constructing models, and linear time-varying models which resemble piece-wise affine systems are constructed via convex optimization techniques. Although the model construction procedure is simple and computationally inexpensive, the obtained models are informative and can be a basis for constructing hybrid models suitable for analysis and controller design. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is shown through an experiment, where a hybrid model for a DC motor system with non-linear friction is constructed based on the proposed approach.