Multisensor Fusion and Integration: Theories, Applications, and its Perspectives

The decision-making processes in an autonomous mechatronic system rely on data coming from multiple sensors. An optimal fusion of information from distributed multiple sensors requires robust fusion approaches. The science of multisensor fusion and integration (MFI) is formed to treat the information merging requirements. MFI aims to provide the system a more accurate perception enabling an optimal decision to be made. The wide application spectrum of MFI in mechatronic systems includes industrial automation, the development of intelligent robots, military applications, biomedical applications, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)/nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). This paper reviews the theories and approaches of MFI with its applications. Furthermore, sensor fusion methods at different levels, namely, estimation methods, classification methods and inference methods, are the most frequently used algorithms. Future perspectives of MFI deployment are included in the concluding remarks.