Surface Ship USW Sonar Data Fusion

"The next generation USW combat system will implement improvedactive/passive sonar processing in a COTS architecture. Shipboardsensors include radar, hull array, towed array, and sonobuoys.The sonar analyst must efficiently manage a huge increase ininformation to realize the full potential of future underseawarfare sensors. Since operator workstations and sonar watch teamsize is limited, reliable data fusion processes are essential tomanage operator workload.This SBIR Phase II will build a multi-sensor, multi-targetautomatic feature detection, tracking and data fusion processingand display system. The system will process contact measurementsfrom multiple sonar and radar sensors and produce an integratedreal-time geographical picture of the multi-contact USWenvironment, enabling optimized sonar operator tactical situationawareness. The SBIR Phase II product will provide the followingcapabilities:- Real-time processing infrastructure to acquire sensordata from an operational USW combat system- Robust sensor registration, fusion, multi-sensor tracker,and threat assessment technologies. Capabilities will includeradar/sonar, active/passive sonar, and hull/towed array sensorfusion.- Fusion display that demonstrates operability benefits:reduced workload, reduced time late, reduced FAR, and increasedPd.The research culminates with at-sea demonstration of sonar datafusion capability on a Navy tactical surface ship.BENEFITS: The pri