Twin-in-the-Loop observer tuning via gradient-information Bayesian optimization with line search
High-fidelity Digital Twins (DTs) are standard tools for offline tasks such as virtual prototyping and validation, yet their deployment in real-time control applications remains limited. The Twin-in-the-Loop (TiL) observer architecture addresses this by leveraging a DT as an embedded prediction model to simultaneously estimate the full state of a complex system. However, the use of a black-box DT precludes analytic gradients, turning observer tuning into a challenging high-dimensional, zeroth-order optimization problem. This study addresses this challenge by applying and extending Gradient Information with Bayesian Optimization ( GIBO ), an algorithm designed for high-dimensional black-box local optimization. We introduce GIBO+LS , a novel variant augmented with a one-dimensional line search, which significantly reduces convergence variability and computational time. Furthermore, we integrate a pseudo-random warm-start strategy and an average-cost optimization across multiple datasets to enhance global search capabilities and empirical robustness. Case studies in a vehicular application using real-world data demonstrate that the proposed method reduces median velocity estimation error by 34% over previous TiL tuning methods and by up to 46% over established Kalman-filter benchmarks.
Authors
- Simone Formentin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6889-6219)
- David A. Stenger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3747-4499)
- Giacomo Delcaro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6153-1845)
- Johanna Menn
- Sergio M. Savaresi
- Sebastian Trimpe
Institutions
- RWTH Aachen University (DE)
- Politecnico di Milano (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Control Engineering Practice
- Published
- 2026-03-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conengprac.2026.106891
- Primary Topic
- Model Reduction and Neural Networks
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00