Imputation for multisource data with comparison and assessment techniques

Missing data are prevalent issue in analyses involving data collection. The problem of missing data is exacerbated for multisource analysis, where data from multiple sensors are combined to arrive at a single conclusion. In this scenario, it is more likely to occur and can lead to discarding a large amount of data collected; however, the information from observed sensors can be leveraged to estimate those values not observed. We propose two methods for imputation of multisource data, both of which take advantage of potential correlation between data from different sensors, through ridge regression and a state‐space model. These methods, as well as the common median imputation, are applied to data collected from a variety of sensors monitoring an experimental facility. Performance of imputation methods is compared with the mean absolute deviation; however, rather than using this metric to solely rank the methods, we also propose an approach to identify significant differences. Imputation techniques will also be assessed by their ability to produce appropriate confidence intervals, through coverage and length, around the imputed values. Finally, performance of imputed datasets is compared with a marginalized dataset through a weighted k‐means clustering. In general, we found that imputation through a dynamic linear model tended to be the most accurate and to produce the most precise confidence intervals, and that imputing the missing values and down weighting them with respect to observed values in the analysis led to the most accurate performance. Published 2017. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.