Patent ID: 7884754

Claim:
A method for merging data from an n-plurality of multiplexed measurement sources to a decision-maker, comprising: receiving an n-plurality of measurements z i of the data from the respective sources within an acquisition interval [t k-1 , t k ], where i=1, 2, . . . n, wherein each measurement z i corresponds to an associated sampling period t ki ; using n local processors to process each of the n-plurality of measurements z i to respectively obtain n-pluralities of local state estimates X i (t ki |t ki ) and local error covariances P i (t ki |t ki ); determining an n-plurality of lag periods λ i , each respectively corresponding to a wait duration for obtaining the local state estimates X i (t ki |t ki ) and the local error covariances P i (t ki |t ki ); offsetting each of the n-plurality of event times t ki by the corresponding each of the n-plurality of the lag periods λ i to provide an n-plurality of offset times t ki +λ i ; supplying the n-pluralities of the local state estimates X i (t ki |t ki ) and the local error covariances P i (t ki |t ki ) to a track fusion center in accordance with the n-plurality of offset times; combining the n-plurality of the local state estimates X i (t ki |t ki ) as a fusion state estimate X f (t k |t k ) and the n-plurality of the local error covariances P i (t ki |t ki ) as a fusion error covariance P f (t k |t k ) by the track fusion center within the acquisition interval [t k-1 , t k ] for submission to the decision-maker.