Software Fuses Radar and Sensor Data

October 1, 2010

Software designed to classify and track multiple targets for active space-borne missile threats also holds the potential to track objects as diverse as ground moving military targets, aircraft, and automobiles.

The software, developed by ANDRO Computational Solutions (Rome, NY), uses proprietary algorithms to fuse data received from multiple sensors to form a single, integrated air picture, or SIAP, within often cluttered target environments. For national missile defense, such a capability could prove useful within the environment of Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD), for example. Using versions of these same algorithms, the sensor-driven software also might offer non-defense-related tracking abilities for cluttered areas like city streets.

The Missile Defense Agency, through a 2005 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract, originally funded ANDRO to develop software capable of aligning and fusing inputs from various sensors, including radar and infrared, to create a SIAP. The company has branded its SIAP under the name Data Fusing and Registration System, or DataFusR. ANDRO continued to enhance its technology with the help of a 2008 MDA Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II contract. In this latest contract, ANDRO is working with researchers from Syracuse University to fuse data from radars, as was done during the DataFusR program. But the new project (known as MIMOSA, for multiple-input multiple-output sensor acquisition) uses radars scattered over a large area thousands of miles to improve target tracking.

How it Works

In the research phase, both DataFusR and MIMOSA created two- and three-dimensional visual interpretations of complex environments based on the fusing of sensor information derived from theoretical models of clouds of objects and clutter. (In missile defense scenarios, such clouds could contain targets and debris, for example.)

These computerized clutter models represent data collected from various ground-based radars as well as infrared or electro-optic sensors on aircraft or satellites. In the case of MDA applications, each sensor has independent processors, so the data is processed locally and hard information is transmitted back to a military command center where missile intercept options are assessed. Both DataFusR and MIMOSA systems fuse together the hard information collected and disseminated by radars and infrared sensors to register collected data, which involves aligning or overlaying targets so they are depicted in the same space/coordinate scheme.

By optimizing the use of multiple sensors, both DataFusR and MIMOSA can efficiently create a SIAP capable of improved targeting of warheads in a cluttered environment. The technologies also can reduce the number of tracking errors by an order of magnitude over comparable missile defense radar systems.

While much of MIMOSA’s functionality is similar to DataFusR, the enhanced product offers a greater degree of tracking accuracy based on geometric and signal diversity. MIMOSA uses a number of geospatially dispersed transmitters and receivers (such as a 5 transmitter x 9 receiver array) to improve the tracking accuracy.

Simulation tests with MIMOSA show tracking accuracy improved by two orders of magnitude over conventional MDA radars in certain scenarios. In contrast, DataFusR uses fewer sensors (normally three to five) and offers one order of magnitude improvement over the same conventional radars.

Where it Stands

Beyond missile defense, either DataFusR or MIMOSA could be applied to the civilian world, depending on the level of tracking accuracy required, in areas such as air-traffic control and highway traffic management. ANDRO is currently negotiating a partnership for real-time aircraft tracking and registration. The company also envisions its technology being used by highway departments to monitor vehicles, whether of a suspicious nature or simply for traffic management.

More Information

For more information on ANDRO’s data fusion software, visit http://info.hotims.com/28058-516  . (Source: Joe Singleton/NTTC; MDA TechUpdate, Missile Defense Agency, National Technology Transfer Center Washington Operations)

---

---