July 3, 2018: Invited Speaker Seminar: Distributed Estimation via Sensor Networks: A Trust-Based Interaction Approach

Dr. Giuseppe Franzè
University of Calabria

Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at 11:00 am
Room EV003.309

Abstract

We propose a distributed estimation architecture for a class of networked systems characterized by three distinct groups of nodes: plants, sensors and agents. We address the problem of state estimation by fusing information on the plants provided by the sensors to the agents via a formal exploitation of trustworthiness concepts. Specifically, the scheme uses the trust that the agents have on the quality of the measurements obtained by the available sensors for state estimation purposes. The trust is evaluated via a novel and original adaptive reputation mechanism that is in charge of intercepting those sensors that have highest Quality of Service performance. A key feature of the proposed scheme is that the evolution of the reputation behaviour over the time is equivalent to that of a positive switching linear system. This straightforwardly allows one to prove Bounded-Input-Bounded-Output stability and other steady-state properties for the proposed trust model. Moreover, it is formally proven that the resulting estimation scheme ensures the selection of the “optimal” sensor in a finite time. Numerical simulations on a solar power satellite network are instrumental to show the capability of the proposed reputation mechanism to efficiently extract accurate state estimations from a given data set.

Biography

Giuseppe Franzè received his Laurea degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Calabria, Italy, in 1994 and his Ph.D. degree in Systems Engineering from the same University in 1999. From 1994 to 2002 he was a Research Associate in the DEIS Department of the University of Calabria. From December 2002 to January 2015 he was an Assistant Professor in the same Department. Since January 2015, he is an Associate Professor in the DIMES Department of the University of Calabria. Since January 2018, he is the Graduate Program Director of the Master Degree in Automation Engineering in the same Department.

He is an author of 150 papers published in refereed international journals and conferences proceedings. He was involved in several theoretical research and applicative projects under the Italian Ministry. His early research activity was in interpolation and approximation theory, robust control, and robust pole placement. Currently, his main scientific interests include constrained predictive control, control under constraints and control reconfiguration for fault-tolerant systems, networked control systems, supervision approaches for remote control of dynamic systems over communication data networks, power systems, sum-of-squares programming, obstacle avoidance problems for autonomous vehicles, and applications of predictive control strategies to aircraft control problems.

He currently serves as a reviewer for IFAC, IEEE, IEE and SIAM international journals and conferences. He has been a member of the IEEE Control Systems Society since 2007. He served as session chair in several international IEEE and IFAC conferences. In October 2014 he obtained the Scientific National Qualification as Full Professor.