Model-based on-line sensor fault detection in Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks

Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks (WSANs) have shown its advantages of flexibility and cable-free deployment in industrial applications. However, the sensors explore directly to the harsh environment and are the most prone to faults and malfunctioning, which poses a big challenge to the WSAN's applicability in applications with high safety requirements. This paper focuses on highly reliable WSANs equipped with double-sensing system and proposes a model-based on-line sensor fault detection scheme by exploiting information redundancy between sensors and actuators. An optimization method is developed to make the proposed scheme robust to the largely fluctuating end-to-end packet transmission delays due to wireless communications. The performance of the proposed sensor fault detection scheme is demonstrated by the simulation of a pick and place robot.