Task-specific sensor settings for electro-optical systems in a marine environment

Abstract

Present-day naval operations take place in coastal environments as well as narrow straits all over the world. Coastal environments around the world are exhibiting a number of threats to naval forces. In particular, a large number of asymmetric threats can be present in environments with cluttered backgrounds as well as rapidly varying atmospheric conditions. The automatic detection of small targets by electro-optical systems may be hampered by small surface structure variations at the surface and near the horizon.In current electro-optical sensor systems processing of imagery is seldom task-specific. Using task-specific settings of sensors, processing and fusion, can improve the performance of electro-optical systems dramatically. This paper discusses the effect of dynamic sensor settings as function of specific tasks and environmental parameters and how these can play a role in the management of sensors in a naval application. In addition, a series of experiments with different targets are presented to demonstrate the benefit of sensor management. Some sensor management approaches for application in infrared systems are discussed.

Research topics on EO systems for maritime platforms

“…Typical tasks that are done with EO/IR systems are: detection, classification and identification of both air and surface threats [1,2]. These tasks can be fully automated, be done by humans interpreting the images, or by humans aided by the system.…”