Distributed Co-operative Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) Using Multiple Low Resolution Sensors

ATR has traditionally been the domain of expensive, one-of-a-kind, high-resolution sensors (whether EO/IR, SAR, HSI, HRR, or other) - along with distinctly high-performance, one-of-a-kind processing capability (racks of workstations/boards). Examples include JointStars, WarHorse, and SHARP. With planned deployment of swarms of smaller (or miniature) sensor platforms, each with low-resolution sensors and very limited processing capability, the tasks of obtaining valuable ATR-grade sensor information - and performing that ATR - emerge as daunting challenges. Any one system may be inadequate, indicating cross-platform coordination is needed. Distributed processing is required, but at the cost of increased latency and significant bandwidth requirements.