COMMAND, CONTROL, AND COMMUNICATIONS (C3) SYSTEMS/SUBSYSTEMS

HIGH SPEED TARGET TRACKING IS A CRUCIAL COMPONENT IS ADVANCED MILITARY AND CIVILIAN SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS. THESE NEXT GENERATION SYSTEMS MUST BE CAPABLE OF ACCURATELY TRACKING MULTIPLE TARGETS MANEUVERING IN LARGER SURVEILLANCE AREAS. THIS IS A COMPLICATED PROBLEM DUE TO THE SENSITIVITY AND BANDWIDTH OF MODERN SENSORS, EFFECTIVE TARGET COUNTERMEASURES (E.G. SMALLER RADAR CROSS SECTION FIGHTERS). LOW POWER AND/OR APERTURE OF FIGHTER-BASED SYSTEMS, ETC. TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOALS, NEXT GENERATION SYSTEMS MUST TAKE ADVANTAGE OF RECENT ADVANCES IN COMPUTING PERFORMANCE IN ORDER TO IMPLEMENT MORE COMPUTATIONALLY COMPLEX ALGORITHMS. THIS PROPOSAL DESCRIBES AN EFFORT TO DEVELOP A COST EFFECTIVE, TRANSPUTER BASED, MULTIPLE TARGET AIR SURVEILLANCE TRACKING SYSTEM. THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL CONSIST OF ASSEMBLING THE ACTUAL HARDWARE TESTBED, CONSTRUCTING THE DESIGN ON A SINGLE TRANSPUTER SY STEM AND DEMONSTRATION WHICH IMPLEMENTS A SIMPLE TARGET TRACKING ALGORITHM IN OCCAM2 WILL BE DEVELOPED DURING PHASE 1 AND IS USED TO ILLUSTRATE HOW HIGH-SPEED TRACKING IS POSSIBLE. A TRADEOFF ANALYSIS WILL ALSO BE CONDUCTED DURING PHASE I TO DETERMINE HOW SUCH FACTORS AS ALGORITHM COMPLEXITY; INPUT SENSOR QUANTITY AND BANDWIDTH; PARALLEL IMPLEMENTATIONS; MAXIMUM NUMBER OF TARGETS TRACKED; TRANSPUTER LOAD BALANCING, ETC. INFLUENCE TRACKING PERFORMANCE.