Acoustic Data Software "Intelligent Agent" Search Tool

Frequent ARCI system upgrades, the addition of new sensors, new classes of targets, and operations in congested areas combine to make the sonar operator's job busier. While sonar data is stored on board during tactical operations, operators do not have time to review it for missed contacts. A tool capable of reviewing stored sonar data for potential missed contacts or indicators of contacts could mine significant additional value from sonar data in the tactical environment. We propose to utilize the technique of Case Based Reasoning (CBR) to assist passive sonar operators. CBR fits this problem particularly well because, while passive sonar analysis is very experience dependent, subjective, and difficult to reduce to firm rules, there are many interpreted data cases available. This is the type of application for which CBR was developed. Case Based Reasoning operates by extracting from the case library cases most similar to the current data, evaluating those cases to determine how they fit the current data, and adapting the current data case into the case library. CBR is currently being used in a broad range of analysis-heavy applications such as medical diagnosis and mechanical diagnosis, so we consider this to be a very feasible approach.