Distributed Estimation in Multimissile Cyber-Physical Systems with Time Delay

In this article a widely studied consensus algorithm for processing sensor data of multimissile systems is considered. A novelty of algorithms to reach a consensus given time-delay constraints is introduced. In previous work, the author proposed an algorithm addressing the same problem. The primary goal of this article is to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The performance was evaluated in Monte Carlo runs in a target tracking scenario. A mission with multimissile trying to intercept a single flying threat is assumed in this scenario. The interceptors are using nonhomogeneous sensors to measure the location of the threat continuously. Each missile computes its state prediction and shares it with its neighboring missile only. However, the shared information is applied to arbitrary nonuniform time delay. The entire group of missiles must reach a consensus on the target's location. The performance is evaluated in terms of overall estimation error, conflict resolution, and time to reach a consensus. Different scenarios are also simulated to examine the effectiveness of the number of missiles performing observation, the delay value, and sensor uncertainty in the overall system stability. Moreover, the tradeoffs of using the algorithm are identified.