  The problem of distributed or decentralized detection and estimation in
applications such as wireless sensor networks has often been considered in the
framework of parametric models, in which strong assumptions are made about a
statistical description of nature. In certain applications, such assumptions
are warranted and systems designed from these models show promise. However, in
other scenarios, prior knowledge is at best vague and translating such
knowledge into a statistical model is undesirable. Applications such as these
pave the way for a nonparametric study of distributed detection and estimation.
In this paper, we review recent work of the authors in which some elementary
models for distributed learning are considered. These models are in the spirit
of classical work in nonparametric statistics and are applicable to wireless
sensor networks.
