ADVANCED WEAPON STATION AUTOMATION/INTEGRATION

UNDER THE ADVANCED WEAPON STATION AUTOMATION/INTEGRATION TOPIC, WE PROPOSE AN INNOVATIVE RESEARCH TO INTEGRATE TARGET EXTRACTION, AUTOMATION AND EXPERT SYSTEMS INTO ONE DEMONSTRATABLE WEAPON SYSTEM FOR TRAINING INTELLIGENT GUNNERS, AND DEVELOPING FIRE CONTROL DECISIONS. THREE PHASE I OBJECTIVES ARE: (1) TO DEMONSTRATE THAT THIS WEAPONN SYSTEM CAN BE DEVELOPED USING "OFF-THE-SHELF" HARDWARE TECHNOLOGIES AND THE EXISTING SR&E ATR ALGORITHMS; (2) TO DETERMINE DOMINANT FACTORS AFFECTING AN TOTALLY AUTOMATED SEGMENTATION PROCESS AND (3) TO CONDUCT A SERIES OF DEMONSTRATIONS AFTER THE FINAL SYSTEM IS DEVELOPED AND TESTED USING REAL WORLD IMAGE DATA AND TACTICAL INFORMATION EMBEDDED AS EXPERT SYSTEMS CONTROLLING THE SEGMENTATION AND TARGET EXTRACTION PROCESSES. THE UNIQUE PROPERTIES OF THE WEAPON SYSTEM ARE: (1) AUTOMATION AS THE BASIS OF ATR ACTION; (2) EMBEDDED EXPERT SYSTEMS AS THE DECISION MAKER TO CONTROL THE AUTOMATION PROCESSES; AND (3) THE WEAPON SYSTEM SERVING AS THE TRAINING ROUND FOR DEVELOPING THE EXPERT SYSTEM. IN THIS SYSTEM CONCEPT, THE HUMAN ANALYST IS TO CONTROL THE AUTOMATED ATR PROCESSES, BUT AT THE SAME TIME HE/SHE IS TO LEARN FROM THE WEAPON HOW TO DEVELOP RULES FOR AN AUTOMATION FILE.