Evaluation of Measurements by the Method of Least Squares

Abstract

In this paper, a general technique for evaluation of measurements by the method of Least Squares is presented. The input to the method consist of estimates and associated uncertainties of the values of measured quantities together with specified constraints between the measured quantities and any additional quantities for which no information about their values are known a priori. The output of the method consist of estimates of both groups of quantities that satisfy the imposed constraints and the uncertainties of these estimates. Techniques for testing the consistency between the estimates obtained by measurement and the imposed constraints are presented. It is shown that linear regression is just a special case of the method. It is also demonstrated that the procedure for evaluation of measurement uncertainty that is currently agreed within the metrology community can be considered as another special case in which no redundant information is available. The practical applicability of the method is demonstrated by two examples.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADP013728

Entities

People

  • Lars Nielsen

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Algorithms
  • Calibration
  • Coefficients
  • Consistency
  • Data Analysis
  • Information Science
  • Least Squares Method
  • Measurement
  • Measuring Instruments
  • Normal Distribution
  • Probability
  • Probability Distributions
  • Random Variables
  • Regression Analysis
  • Statistical Algorithms
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Systems Analysis and Design