Hyperspectral Sensor for Tracking Moving Targets

Continuous surveillance of selected targets from electro-optical sensors on aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are providing significant potential in tactical situation awareness and threat monitoring applications. Situations of interest include movement of vehicles, material, personnel and equipment as well as civilian or military vehicles. Recent capabilities developed include the use of wide-area framing systems combined with image registration and multi-track processing to monitor moving targets. A practical challenge encountered by such systems in a complex environment (e.g., a city) is maintaining the correct association between successive observations of the same target over long time periods or through periods of obscuration or missed coverage. HSI sensors for tracking have the potential to improve the ability to maintain/disambiguate tracks and reacquire lost tracks. Space Computer Corporation, in conjunction with our subcontractor Bodkin Design & Engineering, propose to develop a system design for spectral tracking of moving targets. Our approach is based on the use of the new generation of staring video hyperspectral sensors in conjunction with color cameras and/or wide-area persistent surveillance sensors for tracking. This approach will be compared to alternative methods based on scanning, sequential (temporal) filter-based approaches and Fourier transform methods against the desired system requirements. BENEFIT: Anticipated benefits of our proposed approach include significant improvements in capability for continuous monitoring of specific threat targets moving in complex backgrounds, through incorporation of fine-scale hyperspectral signature information and discriminants into a motion-based target tracking architecture. Potential military applications include: (1) real-time detection, tracking and identification of designated vehicles and dismounts, (2) wide-area persistent surveillance from remote airborne platforms, and (3) identification and mapping of temporally evolving threats such as chemical weapon releases. Potential Government applications include 1) monitoring areas for illicit activities, such as drug transactions, 2) monitoring borders to keep track of suspected illegal border crossings and 3) monitoring industrial processes. Potential commercial applications include site security and intrusion detection, real-time traffic monitoring, air and water pollution effluent tracking, and airborne surveillance for law enforcement and disaster relief.