Masking failures of multidimensional sensors

Abstract

A methodology for transforming a process control program that cannot tolerate sensor failure into one that can is presented. 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. The authors consider sensors that deliver multidimensional values (e.g. location or velocity in three dimensions). Geometric techniques are used to derive upper bounds on abstract sensor accuracy and to develop efficient algorithms for implementing abstract sensors.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>