Combat Identification for Difficult Targets

Toyon Research Corporation proposes to develop a fusion module that is capable of fusing measurements and/or tracks from a variety of different sensors including EO/IR, radar, ESM, acoustic, and video. The locations of the sensors may be widespread requiring a communications system with limited bandwidth and potential time delays. We will develop algorithms that perform data association, state estimation, and identification estimation in this distributed environment. We will make use of ongoing research at Toyon in the areas of N-scan association algorithms, IMM tracking algorithms, and Bayesian Networks. We will build the fusion module with the intention of serving the fusion needs of a strike aircraft (such as the Joint Strike fighter) operating in a network-centric environment with many other possible intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets. We will develop the algorithms using the SLAMEM testbed which is currently in use at AFRL and Joint Forces Command where it is serving as a testbed for the development and demonstration of fusion algorithms. At the end of Phase II, we will demonstrate the algorithms using SLAMEM or another testbed designated by AFRL.