E-3 SENSOR DATA FUSION ALGORITHM

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE AN ALGORITHM FOR E-3 AIRBORNE SURVEILLANCE WHICH WILL FUSE DATA FROM MULTIPLE SENSORS INCLUDING A RADAR, AN IFF, AND AN ESM TO TRACK AND IDENTIFY MULTIPLE TARGETS. THE CURRENT E-3 SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM HAS A RADAR AND AN IFF SYSTEM. HOSTILE TARGETS ARE UNLIKELY TO BE DETECTED BY THE IFF SYSTEM; THE EMERGENCE OF LOW-OBSERVABLE TECHNOLOGY WILL MAKE IT DIFFICULT EVEN FOR THE RADAR TO DETECT THEM. THIS INDICATES THE NEED FOR ADDITIONAL SENSORS SUCH AS AN ESM TO IMPROVE THE MISSION EFFECTIVENESS OF THE E-3; HOWEVER, UNLESS THE INFORMATION FROM ALL SENSORS IS FUSED, THE AIR PICTURE WILL NOT IMPROVE DUE TO THE MULTIPLICITY OF TRACKS PRODUCED FOR EACH TARGET BY THE DIFFERENT SENSORS. ALPHATECH PROPOSES TO ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM BY FIRST DERIVING THE MATHEMATICALLY OPTIMAL SOLUTION FOR FUSING DATA FROM MULTIPLE SENSOR TO DEVELOP A UNIFIED PICTURE OF THE TARGET TRACKS AND IDENTITIES. WE WILL THEN DEVELOP A PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION BY INCORPORATING HEURISTICS WITHIN THIS OPTIMAL SOLUTIONS. USING AN ALGORITHM ALREADY DEVELOPED FOR A RELATED AIRBORNE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM, WE WILL DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE OF SUCH A FUSION ALGORITHM AND DEMONSTRATE IT WITH SIMULATED DATA.