Distributed moving horizon state estimation: Simultaneously handling communication delays and data losses

In this work, we consider distributed moving horizon state estimation of nonlinear systems subject to communication delays and data losses. In the proposed design, a local estimator is designed for each subsystem and the distributed estimators communicate to collaborate. To handle the delays and data losses simultaneously, a predictor is designed for each subsystem estimator. A two-step prediction-update strategy is used in the predictor design in order to get a reliable prediction of the system state. In the design of each subsystem estimator, an auxiliary nonlinear observer is also taken advantage of to calculate a reference subsystem state estimate. In the local estimator, the reference state estimate is used to generate a confidence region within which the local estimator optimizes its subsystem state estimate. Sufficient conditions under which the proposed design gives decreasing and ultimately bounded estimation error are provided. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated via the application to a chemical process example.