Qualitative and quantitative experiment design for phenomenological models—A survey

Abstract

Designing an experiment for parameter estimation involves two steps. The first one is qualitative, and consists of selecting a suitable configuration of the input/output ports so as to make, if possible, all the parameters of interest identifiable. The second step is quantitative, and based on the optimization of a suitable criterion (with respect to the input shapes, sampling schedule,…) so as to get the maximum information from the data to be collected. When the model is nonlinear in the parameters, the typical situation for phenomenological models, both steps present specific difficulties which are discussed in this paper. The practical importance of qualitative experiment design is illustrated by a very simple biological model. Various policies presented in the literature for quantitative experiment design are reviewed. Special emphasis is given to methods allowing uncertainty on the prior information to be taken into account.