Innovation

X-DoF Improves Your Blocked Forces: Paper Published

02 December 2024

On November 26th, 2024, VIBES’ research paper, authored by Philipp Bofinger, Jelle Boelens, Steven Klassen, and Dennis de Klerk: “X-DoF: Automatic Degree of Freedom Subset Selection for Inverse Blocked Force Characterization” was published on Journal of Vibrations and Acoustics. Below is the summary of our findings.

The current problems

In inverse Blocked Force characterization, selecting the correct set of Degrees of Freedom (DoF) is crucial. The main issues are:

  1. Overfitting: Including too many DoF can lead to overfitting, where the model fits the noise in the data rather than the actual signal. This results in inaccurate force estimations and poor prediction quality.
  2. Underfitting: Selecting too few DoF can lead to underfitting, where the model fails to capture the necessary dynamics, leading to incomplete or incorrect force characterizations.
  3. Manual Selection Challenges: Manually selecting the appropriate DoF is a tedious and error-prone process, especially as the number of possible subsets increases exponentially.

Advantages of X-DoF

The X-DoF procedure offers significant advantages over traditional methods:

  1. Automatic DoF Selection: X-DoF automatically identifies the relevant subset of Blocked Force DoF, eliminating the need for manual selection and reducing the risk of human error.
  2. Reduced Overfitting: By selecting only the necessary DoF, X-DoF minimizes overfitting, leading to more accurate force estimations and better prediction quality.
  3. Improved Robustness to Noise: The method enhances the robustness of the solution to measurement noise, ensuring that the force estimations are not influenced by errors in the data.
  4. Enhanced Predictive Quality: Experimental results show that X-DoF provides better predictive quality compared to traditional methods, making it a valuable tool for Blocked Force characterization and component TPA.

Overall, X-DoF addresses the key challenges in inverse Blocked Force characterization by providing a systematic and automated approach to DoF subset selection, leading to more accurate and robust Blocked Forces that generalize well to unseen data.

Fig 1. Onboard validation of an EDU indicating overfitting of the matrix inverse model

Fig 1. Onboard validation of an EDU indicating overfitting of the matrix inverse model

X-DoF subset of active DoF

Fig 2. X-DoF subset of active DoF

Paper Abstract

Selecting the proper set of Degrees of Freedom is essential in inverse (Blocked) Force calculation. Including too many Degrees of Freedom in the computation can lead to overfitting, resulting in inaccurate force estimations and poor prediction quality. The discrepancy arises from errors within the dataset, such as measurement noise or other artifacts. This paper presents a solution to the overfitting problem, introducing the X-DoF procedure to automatically identify the relevant subset of Blocked Force Degrees of Freedom. Its effectiveness is showcased through numerical and experimental validation and compared against regularization techniques.

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