Sensor network design for complex systems

This paper proposes a strategy to design a minimal and fault-tolerant sensor network for observability of complex systems. Complex systems are large-scale dynamic systems composed of interconnected subsystems. The objective is to determine the sensors to be used so that the system is observable while minimizing the number of sensors. The strategy is based on breaking down complex systems into interconnected subsystems. System breakdown helps in treating each subsystem separately and allows using reduced-order observers rather than a large-scale observer for the overall system. An academic example is given to illustrate the proposed strategy.