Abstract:A new unified modelling framework based on the superposition of additive submodels, functional components, and wavelet decompositions is proposed for nonlinear system identification. A nonlinear model, which is often represented using a multivariate nonlinear function, is initially decomposed into a number of functional components via the well known analysis of variance (ANOVA) expression, which can be viewed as a special form of the NARX(Nonlinear AutoRegressive with eXogenous inputs) model for representing dynamic input-output systems.By expanding each functional component using wavelet decompositions including the regular lattice frame decomposition, wavelet series and multiresolution wavelet decompositions, the multivariate nonlinear model can then be converted into a linear-in-the-parameters problem, which can be solved using least-squares type methods. An efficient model structure determination approach based upon a forward orthogonal least squares (OLS) algorithm, which involves a stepwise orthogonalization of the regressors and a forward selection of the relevant model terms based on the error reduction ratio (ERR), is employed to solve the linear-in-the-parameters problem in the present study. The new modelling structure is referred to as a Wavelet-based ANOVA decomposition of the NARX model or simply WANARX model, and can be applied to represent high-order and high dimensional nonlinear systems.