Novel LADAR Signature Exploitation for Obscured Target Environments

Laser radars (ladars) have been investigated for the detection, classification and terminal tracking of military targets. One area of concern is the performance of automatic target acquisition (ATA) algorithms on targets that are stochastically obscuredby foliage. A program is proposed that will increase the understanding of target obscuration while increasing the set of non-proprietary ATA algorithms available to the weapon systems designer.The techniques developed during this program will benefit thefield of computer vision. Specifically, robots that pick parts and perform quality control will be enhanced by the ability to effectively process occluded objects. Medical imaging will also benefit from the algotihms developed during this program.