Fitness function based sensor degradation estimation using H∞ filter

In a practical scenario, sensors are used for health monitoring, condition monitoring of systems, weather, etc. but it is highly probable that the sensor itself degrades. This degradation in the sensors causes erroneous true negative results. Therefore, to improve the reliability and eliminate incorrect data, it is important to gauge the health of sensor and periodically determine its' degradation level to change it within stipulated time. This paper introduces an efficient method to estimate the level of sensor degradation using its fitness function, which will indicate the level of fitness of the sensor to be used and estimate the future values from the fitness function. H-infinity filter based estimation theory is used to predict the future values of the fitness function of the sensors. Thus, to maintain the desired value and right turnout, an Automatic Gain Controller circuit is explained which helps us suggest to put back the degraded sensor. The results are presented along with the estimated fitness function. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).