Robust estimation based on energy minimization principles

 It is argued that the tendency of nature to minimize energy may be used as a unifying basis for all robust estimators. Robustness is defined and discussed based on mechanical rather than empirical and abstract tools. This mechanical view of robustness is then extended to design new and useful robust data editors that suppress the outlying content of the contaminated observations. These editors are applied to edit samples of sea-surface heights, gravity observations and reduced global positioning system baselines. Received: 12 July 1997 / Accepted: 8 June 1999