Masking Failures of Multidimensional Sensors

Abstract

When a computer monitors a physical process, the computer uses sensors to determine the values of the physical variables that represent the state of the process. A sensor can sometimes fail, however, and in the worst case report a value completely unrelated to the true physical value. The work described in this paper is motivated by a methodology for transforming a process control program that cannot tolerate sensor failure into one that can. In this methodology, a reliable abstract sensor is created by combining information from several real sensors that measure the same physical value. To be useful, an abstract sensor must deliver reasonably accurate information at reasonable computational cost. In this paper, we consider sensors that deliver multidimensional values (e.g., location or velocity in 3 dimensions). Geometric techniques are used to derive upper bounds on abstract sensor accuracy and to develop efficient algorithms for implementing abstract sensors.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA235580

Entities

People

  • Keith Marzullo
  • Paul Chew

Organizations

  • Cornell University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Accuracy
  • Algorithms
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Concrete
  • Contracts
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Distribution Functions
  • Intervals
  • Measurement
  • Orientation (Direction)
  • Probability Distribution Functions
  • Probability Distributions
  • Programming Languages
  • Random Variables
  • Specifications

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Inertial Navigation Systems.
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.
  • Theoretical Analysis.