A method to determine sensor positions was developed to reduce force identification error. Improper selections of response measurement positions can cause unacceptable error in force identification. The method presented in this paper bases on singular value decomposition of Frequency Response Matrix (FRM) to improve the conditions of system's FRM. The basic strategy of the method in selecting the response position is to let the smallest singular value be as large as possible by maximizing the orthogonal condition. The suggested method was not only tested numerically with two clamped-clamped beam models but also tested experimentally with a plate and a half scaled model car. The results show that the suggested method is very effective in solving ill-conditioned problem.
