Feedforward estimators for the distributed average tracking of bandlimited signals in discrete time with switching graph topology

We consider the distributed average tracking problem where a group of agents estimates the global average of bandlimited signals using only local communication. An estimator is designed to solve this problem with minimal error. Previous discrete-time designs are limited to tracking signals which either are constant, are slowly varying, have a known model (or frequency), or consist of a single unknown frequency which can be estimated. In contrast, we propose a feedforward design which is capable of tracking the average of arbitrary bandlimited signals. The communication graph is assumed to be connected and symmetric with non-zero weighted Laplacian eigenvalues in a known interval, although simulations show that the performance degrades gracefully as these assumptions are violated. Our design also provides the estimate of the average without delay and is robust to changes in graph topology.