ABSTRACT
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Decentralized (or distributed) data fusion (DDF) is one of the most important areas of research in the eld of control and estimation. The motivation for decentralization is that it provides a degree of scalability and robustness that cannot be achieved using traditional centralized architectures. In industrial applications, decentralization offers the possibility of producing plug-and-play systems in which sensors of different types and capabilities can be slotted in and out, optimizing trade-offs such as price, power consumption, and performance. This has signi cant implications for military systems as well because it can dramatically reduce the time required to incorporate new computational and sensing components into ghter aircraft, ships, and other types of platforms.
