The issue that you currently hold is devoted to the Identification of Mechanical Systems. System Identification conventionally refers to the problem of developing mathematical models of systems based upon measured excitation and response signals. I prefer a broadened viewpoint, considering System Identification as an engineering “umbrella” term for all types of estimation problems within a dynamical system or signal setting; systems and signals being treated within a common framework. Problems such as signal modeling and estimation, spectral estimation, signal prediction, detection of changes (for instance faults), are then also included in it, and this is, to a certain extent, reflected in this Special Issue.
Although the interest in System Identification may be traced back to scientists such as Gauss, most of the major advances did not take place until the twentieth century, and, especially, after the advent of digital computers in the past forty years. Up until three decades ago,...
