MULTISENSORS MULTIFEATURE BASED AUTONOMOUS TARGET RECOGNITION AND TRACKING

THIS PROPOSAL RESPONDS TO THE THCHNICAL NEEDS OF THE US ARMY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MULTISENSOR-BASED TARGET ACQUISITION, RECOGNITION AND TRACKING SYSTEMS. FOUR TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS ARE PROPOSED: 1) DEVELOPMENT OF REAL-TIME MULTIPLE SENSOR CONFIGERATION AND OPERARION MODE SELECTION LOGIC WHICH HAVE THE CAPABILITY OF ADAPTING TO EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT CHANGES AND RE-ORGANIZING OF INTERNAL FUSION AND TRACKING SUBSYSTEMS; 2) DEVELOPMENT OF SENSOR DATA FUSION SCHEMES AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SIGNAL/DATA PROCESSING CHAIN; 3) DEVELOPMENT OF OPTIMIZED TARGET RECOGNITION AND TRACKING ALGORITHMS BY INTEGRATING DIFFERENT METHODS BASED ON A DISTINCT SIGNATURE DOMAIN AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE TARGETS OF INTEREST; AND 4) DEVELOPMENT OF TARGET TRACKING ALGORITHMS IN THE FORMS OF ACTIVE, PASSIVE, OR SEMIACTIVE, DEPENDING UPON THE SENSOR CONFIGURATION AND MODE USED, WHICH ACCOUNT FOR TARGET MANEUVERING, MEASUREMENT ORIGIN UNCERTAINTY, AND NONLINEARITY. THE TWO-PHASE RESEARCH PROGRAM IS PROPOSED WITH THE ULTIMATE GOAL TO DEVELOP THE MULTIPLE SENSOR BASED TARGET ACQUISITION, RECOGNITION, RECOGNITION AND TRACKING SYSTEM. IN PHASE I, A DETAILED DESIGN OF SUCH A SYSTEM WITH THE ABOVE FEATURES WILL BE CARRIED OUT AND COMPLEMENTED WITH APPROPRIATE EVALUATION CAPABILITIES AND SIMULATION TOOLS. CAPABILITY EXTENSION AND PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM WILL BE MADE IN PHASE II, ALONG WITH SOFTWARE/HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION TO DEMONSTRATE THE EFFECTIVENESS AND TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM.