Some Notions on System Modeling

One of the main objectives of this chapter is to introduce some modeling concepts. Indeed, as seen in the previous chapters, to apply an optimization method we need to have a mathematical model of the physical system that we want to optimize. Thus, given some design specifications, this model can be used to formulate the corresponding optimization problem. To illustrate how a mathematical model of a given physical system can be obtained, two examples are presented: the active magnetic bearing (AMB) and the quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle. These models will be used in the last part of this chapter to formulate and solve the optimal sizing problem related to these systems for given design specifications.