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My research addresses three areas: (i) State estimation for large-scale systems, (ii) Sensor redundancy, and (iii) Optimal decision-making from input-output data.

State Estimation for Large-Scale Systems

As large-scale systems are susceptible to fault and attack, effective state monitoring becomes critical. In most cases, data collected from a single sensor for large-scale systems are often inadequate for observing the entire state; however, the rise of embedded systems has considerably enhanced sensor capabilities in terms of communication and computation. My research focuses on creating distributed state estimation scheme that fuses the sensor data collected at different nodes hence enabling accurate system monitoring under three specific conditions: (i) switching network links among sensors, (ii) faulty actuators, and (iii) sensor vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks.

  1. R. Zhao, G. Yang, T. Parisini, and B. Chen. “Distributed Unknown Input Observer Design: A Geometric Approach”. In: IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (2025). Submitted as a full paper.
  2. G. Yang, X. Ren, N. Bastianello, and T. Parisini. “State Estimation Using a Network of Observers: A Distributed Optimization Approach”. In: 23rd European Control Conference (2025). Submitted.
  3. R. Zhao, G. Yang, T. Parisini, and B. Chen. “Distributed Unknown Input Observer Design with Relaxed Conditions: Theory and Application to Vehicle Platooning”. In: 23rd European Control Conference (2025). Submitted
  4. R. Zhao, G. Yang, P. Li, and B. Chen. “A Multi-hop Sensor Network-based State Estimation for Discrete-time Linear Systems with Dynamic Communication Graphs”. In: 23rd European Control Conference (2025). Submitted
  5. Zhao R, Yang G, Li P, et al. State Estimation Using a Network of Observers for a Class of Nonlinear Systems With Communication Delay[C]//2024 European Control Conference (ECC). IEEE, 2024: 762-767. link
  6. Yang G, Barboni A, Rezaee H, et al. Plug-and-Play Design for Linear Distributed Observers[J]. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 2023, 56(2): 10811-10816. link
  7. Yang G, Rezaee H, Alessandri A, et al. State estimation using a network of distributed observers with switching communication topology[J]. Automatica, 2023, 147: 110690. link
  8. Yang G, Barboni A, Rezaee H, et al. State estimation using a network of distributed observers with unknown inputs[J]. Automatica, 2022, 146: 110631. link
  9. Yang G, Rezaee H, Serrani A, et al. Sensor fault-tolerant state estimation by networks of distributed observers[J]. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2022, 67(10): 5348-5360. link
  10. Yang G, Rezaee H, Parisini T. Distributed state estimation for a class of jointly observable nonlinear systems[J]. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 2020, 53(2): 5045-5050. link
  11. Pin G, Yang G, Serrani A, et al. Fixed-time observer design for LTI systems by time-varying coordinate transformation[C]//2020 59th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC). IEEE, 2020: 6040-6045. link

Sensor Redundancy

Distinct from the first research strand, my work here does not hinge on distributed settings but rather on a plethora of local measurements. This research explores sensor redundant systems by leveraging the geometric approach. Beyond the existing literature, I distinguish sensor redundancy as weak and strong sensor redundancy and provide rigorous definitions and properties of such systems. I aim to utilise these properties to achieve additional objectives beyond input or state reconstruction for noise or disturbance-free systems. For example, I have published a paper on estimating input faults, disturbances, and states jointly by utilising the geometric properties of weakly redundant systems. Although this work is theory-heavy, the potential applications are tremendous.