Event-Triggered Robust Fusion Estimation for Multi-Sensor Time-Delay Systems with Packet Drops

This paper investigates the robust fusion estimation problem for multi-sensor systems with communication constraints, parameter uncertainty, d-step state delays, and deterministic control inputs. The multi-sensor system consists of a fusion center and some sensor nodes with computational capabilities, between which there are random packet drops. The state augmentation method is utilized to transform a time-delay system into a non-time-delay one. The robust state estimation algorithm is derived based on the sensitivity penalty for each sensor node to reduce the impact of modelling errors, and modelling errors here are not limited to a unique form, which implies that the fusion estimator applies to a wide range of situations. An event-triggered transmission strategy has been adopted to effectively alleviate the communication burden from the sensor node to the fusion center. Moreover, the fusion estimator handles packet drops arising from unreliable channels, and the corresponding pseudo-cross-covariance matrix is provided. Some conditions are given to ensure that the estimation error of the robust fusion estimator is uniformly bounded. Two sets of numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the derived fusion estimator.