OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF MULTIVARIATE SENSORS

The design of sensing systems for the measurement of multiple physical quantities related to a dynamical system is considered. A multivariat e sensor comprises several simple transducers, each measuring a scalar quantity that comes from the combination of the components of the qua ntity to be measured. From the collection of measurements of single tr ansducers at different times, the desired information is extracted by analogue or digital processing. Besides the choice of technological ch aracteristics of the transducers to be employed, the designer of multi variate sensors is usually allowed some freedom in choosing the number of transducers, their arrangement in the system, and the time schedul ing of their measurements. These choices are the subject of optimal po licies in the design phase, whose goal is to maximize some performance (or minimize some cost) criterion. We survey some of the existing app roaches to optimal design of multivariate sensors, according to the di fferent types of systems they are applied to. Two examples of optimal sensor design are discussed as an illustration of the methods.