MORPHOLOGY-BASED DETECTION PROCESSING FOR SCANNING IRST SENSOR

THIS PROPOSAL SEEKS TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF APPLYING NEWLY DEVELOPED MORPHOLOGY-BASED ATR ALGORITHMS TO THE IRST TARGET DETECTION AND TARGET/CLUTTER DISCRIMINATION PROBLEM. THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS UNIQUE APPROACH IS TWOFOLD. FIRST, DETECTION PERFORMANCE CAN BE DRAMATICALLY IMPROVED (OVER TRADITIONAL CFAR TECHNIQUES) FOR THE DETECTION OF TARGETS IN SEVERE BACKGROUND CLUTTER, IN WHICH EXCESSIVE FALSE ALARMS ARE A TYPICAL PROBLEM. SECONDLY, MORPHOLOGYBASED ALGORITHMS CAN BE IMPLEMENTED IN VERY HIGH-SPEED HARDWARE BECAUSE THE FUNDAMENTAL OPERATIONS INVOLVE ONLY LOGICAL COMPARISONS (MIN AND MAX). THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS APPROACH MAKE IT IDEALLY SUITED FOR PROCESSING LARGE VOLUMES OF IRST DATA AT VERY LOW COMPUTATIONAL AND HARDWARE COST. OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS ATLANTIC AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS CORPORATION HAS DEVELOPED AND DEMONSTRATED THIS MORPHOLOGY-BASED TECHNOLOGY FOR DETECTING NONRESOLVED AND RESOLVED TARGETS IN HIGH CLUTTER BACKGROUNDS. THIS WORK WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN SEVERAL PROGRAMS SPONSORED BY THE AIR FORCE, IN WHICH BASIC ALGORITHM COMPONENTS WERE DEVELOPED, ALGORITHM PERFORMANCE WAS QUANTIFIED ANALYTICALLY AND THEIR OPERATION WAS VERIFIED EXPERIMENTALLY USING RECORDED REAL DATA. OUR PROPOSAL IS TO TRANSFER THIS EXISTING TECHNOLOGY TO THE SHIPBORNE SCANNING IRST SENSOR SYSTEM. IN PHASE II WE PLAN TO DESIGN AND FABRICATE AN EXPERIMENTAL IRST PROCESSOR AND TO DEMONSTRATE ITS OPERATION IN CONJUNCTION WITH A NAVY IRST SENSOR.