Kullback–Leibler average, consensus on probability densities, and distributed state estimation with guaranteed stability

This paper addresses distributed state estimation over a sensor network wherein each node–equipped with processing, communication and sensing capabilities–repeatedly fuses local information with information from the neighbors. Estimation is cast in a Bayesian framework and an information-theoretic approach to data fusion is adopted by formulating a consensus problem on the Kullback–Leibler average of the local probability density functions (PDFs) to be fused. Exploiting such a consensus on local posterior PDFs, a novel distributed state estimator is derived. It is shown that, for a linear system, the proposed estimator guarantees stability, i.e. mean-square boundedness of the state estimation error in all network nodes, under the minimal requirements of network connectivity and system observability, and for any number of consensus steps. Finally, simulation experiments demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.