Remarks on Bellman's structural identifiability (Q1075962)

This paper takes as a starting point the celebrated article by \textit{R. Bellman} and \textit{K. J. Astrom} on structural identifiability, ibid. 7, 329-339 (1970). After illustrating some aspects of the identifiability problem, the attention is focused on some typical configurations, such as inseparability, input-output non reachability, which prevent structure and interval identification and can only be detected by inspection of the compartmental graph. The author suggests moreover, creating some kind of algebraic structure borrowed from linear spaces, to bridle the nonlinear parameter spaces. In this light, ''parameter space'' is the set containing every smooth function of the original unknown parameters; a set of parameters is said to be ''independent'' if it contains only independent functions; an independent set is a ''basis'' of the parameter space and the number of its elements the ''space dimension''. Finally, the known property of the Jacobian matrix in checking for functional dependence, is applied to sets of functions in the parameter space, Prop. (5.1), and it is pointed out that a Jacobian matrix in which a minor of full rank is a diagonal matrix is always related to a set of independent parameters, Prop. (5.2). All the stated properties are illustrated with examples from catenary and mammillary systems.