Multiple Sensor Fault Detection and Isolation in Complex Distributed Dynamical Systems

Abstract: The emergence of networked embedded systems and sensor/actuator networks has given rise to advanced monitoring and control applications, where a large amount of sensor data is collected and processed in real-time in order to activate the appropriate actuators and achieve the desired control objectives. However, in situations where faults arise in one or more of the sensing devices, this may lead to a serious degradation in performance or to an overall system failure. The goal of this presentation is to motivate the need for health monitoring, fault diagnosis and security of complex distributed dynamical systems and to provide a methodology for detecting and isolating multiple sensor faults in a class of complex nonlinear dynamic systems. The detection of faults in sensor groups is conducted using robust analytical redundancy relations, formulated by structured residuals and adaptive thresholds. Various estimation algorithms will be presented and illustrated, and directions for future research will be discussed.