Detection of point targets and blurred point targets in midwave infrared imagery is difficult because few assumptions can be made concerning the characteristics of the background. In this thesis, real time spatial prefiltering algorithms that facilitate the detection of such targets in an airborne threat warning system are investigated. The objective of prefiltering is to pass target signals unattenuated while rejecting background and noise. The use of unsharp masking with median filter masking operators is recommended. Experiments involving simulated imagery are described, and the performance of median filter unsharp masking is found to be superior to that of the Laplacian filter, the linear point detection filter, and unsharp masking with a mean filter mask. A primary difficulty in implementing real time median filters is the design of a mechanism for extracting local order statistics from the input. By performing a space-time transformation on a standard selection network, a practical sorting architecture for this purpose is developed. A complete hardware median filter unsharp masking design with a throughput of 25.6 million bits per second is presented and recommended for use in the airborne threat warning system. / Master of Science

Motivated by the fact that anti-ship missiles present a serious threat to today's Navy, a tracking filter which will give superior tracking and trajectory extrapolation when tracking anti-ship missiles is desired. Because most anti-ship missiles use proportional navigation in their guidance systems, it is best to model their motion using the proportional navigation guidance law. An unbiased narrowband filter is required because the state estimate is used to extrapolate the trajectory over the long time of flight of the gun projectile used to intercept the anti-ship missile. Using the proportional navigation guidance law, a tracking filter is developed which meets the stated requirements. An advantage in using the proportional navigation model, which is not found in previous target models, is the end goal or destination constraint inherent in the proportional navigation guidance law: the anti-ship missile's goal is to strike ownership; the proportional navigation trajectory always passes through the origin. Because of model mismatch when tracking missiles using proportional navigation guidance, previous tracking filters, which use constant velocity, exponentially correlated acceleration, or constant acceleration models of target motion, must use a wide bandwidth or else develop significant bias errors. / M.S.

A method for integrating multisensor data for the purpose of track initiation using horizon infrared and radar data is proposed. This multisensor track initiation (MSTI) method extends contemporary data fusion techniques so as to address the problem of missing measurements. The missing measurement phenomenon occurs due to a variety of reasons, the foremost of which is variation in sensor detection performance due to environmental factors. The proposed MSTI method requires only the results of spatial feature tests that are performed on sensor data sequences. The formation of data sequences and the derivation of feature tests to integrate horizon radar and infrared data of differing resolutions is addressed. Results are presented that detail the performance of the MSTI technique when operating on simulated data. It is shown that the statistical performance of the MSTI technique is better than or equal to that of the AND algorithm for a representative set of scenarios. The sensitivity of the MSTI method to variations in assumed feature test and data sequence statistics is also addressed. / Ph. D.

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Object detection and tracking are important components of many computer vision applications including automated surveillance. Automated surveillance attempts to solve the challenges associated with closed-circuit camera systems. These include monitoring large numbers of cameras and the associated labour costs, and issues related to targeted surveillance. Object detection is an important step of a surveillance system and must overcome challenges such as changes in object appearance and illumination, dynamic background objects like ickering screens, and shadows. Our system uses Gaussian mixture models, which is a background subtraction method, to detect moving objects. Tracking is challenging because measurements from the object detection stage are not labelled and could be from false targets. We use multiple hypothesis tracking to solve this measurement origin problem. Practical long-term tracking of objects should have re-identi cation capabilities to deal with challenges arising from tracking failure and occlusions. In our system each tracked object is assigned a one-class support vector machine (OCSVM) which learns the appearance of that object. The OCSVM is trained online using HSV colour features. Therefore, objects that were occluded or left the scene can be reidenti ed and their tracks extended. Standard, publicly available data sets are used for testing. The performance of the system is measured against ground truth using the Jaccard similarity index, the track length and the normalized mean square error. We nd that the system performs well. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die opsporing en volging van voorwerpe is belangrike komponente van baie rekenaarvisie toepassings, insluitend outomatiese bewaking. Outomatiese bewaking poog om die uitdagings wat verband hou met geslote kring kamera stelsels op te los. Dit sluit in die monitering van groot hoeveelhede kameras en die gepaardgaande arbeidskoste, en kwessies wat verband hou met toegespitse bewaking. Die opsporing van voorwerpe is 'n belangrike stap in 'n bewakingstelsel en moet uitdagings soos veranderinge in die voorwerp se voorkoms en beligting, dinamiese agtergrondvoorwerpe soos ikkerende skerms, en skaduwees oorkom. Ons stelsel maak gebruik van Gaussiese mengselmodelle, wat 'n agtergrond-aftrek metode is, om bewegende voorwerpe op te spoor. Volging is 'n uitdaging, want afmetings van die voorwerp-opsporing stadium is nie gemerk nie en kan afkomstig wees van valse teikens. Ons gebruik verskeie hipotese volging (multiple hypothesis tracking ) om hierdie meting-oorsprong probleem op te los. Praktiese langtermynvolging van voorwerpe moet heridenti seringsvermoëns besit, om die uitdagings wat voortspruit uit mislukte volging en okklusies te kan hanteer. In ons stelsel word elke gevolgde voorwerp 'n een-klas ondersteuningsvektormasjien (one-class support vector machine, OCSVM) toegeken, wat die voorkoms van daardie voorwerp leer. Die OCSVM word aanlyn afgerig met die gebruik van HSV kleurkenmerke. Daarom kan voorwerpe wat verdwyn later her-identi seer word en hul spore kan verleng word. Standaard, openbaar-beskikbare datastelle word vir toetse gebruik. Die prestasie van die stelsel word gemeet teen korrekte afvoer, met behulp van die Jaccard ooreenkoms-indeks, die spoorlengte en die genormaliseerde gemiddelde kwadraatfout. Ons vind dat die stelsel goed presteer.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited. / High-resolution combat simulations that model urban combat currently use computationally expensive algorithms to represent urban target acquisition at the entity level. While this may be suitable for small-scale urban combat scenarios, simulation run time can become unacceptably long for larger scenarios. Consequently, there is a need for models that can lend insight into target acquisition in urban terrain for largescale scenarios in an acceptable length of time. This research develops urban target acquisition models that can be substituted for existing physicsbased or computationally expensive combat simulation algorithms and result in faster simulation run time with an acceptable loss of aggregate simulation accuracy. Specifically, this research explores (1) the adaptability of probability of line of sight estimates to urban terrain; (2) how cumulative distribution functions can be used to model the outcomes when a set of sensors is employed against a set of targets; (3) the uses for Markov Chains and Event Graphs to model the transition of a target among acquisition states; and (4) how a system of differential equations may be used to model the aggregate flow of targets from one acquisition state to another. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Options for tracking dynamic underwater targets using optical methods is currently limited. This thesis examines optical reflectance intensities utilizing Lambert’s Reflection Model and based on a proposed underwater laser tracking system. Numerical analysis is performed through simulation to determine the detectable light intensities based on relationships between varying inputs such as angle of illumination and target position. Attenuation, noise, and laser beam spreading are included in the analysis. Simulation results suggest optical tracking exhibits complex relationships based on target location and illumination angle. Signal to Noise Ratios are a better indicator of system capabilities than received intensities. Signal reception does not necessarily confirm target capture in a multi-sensor network. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Research in the areas of target detection, tracking, and geo-location is most important for enabling an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform to autonomously execute a mission or task without the need for a pilot or operator. Small-class UAVs and video camera sensors complemented with "soft sensors" realized only in software as a combination of a priori knowledge and sensor measurements are called upon to replace the cumbersome precision sensors on-board a large class UAV. The objective of this research is to develop a geo-location solution for use on-board multiple UAVs with mounted video camera sensors only to accurately geo-locate and track a target. This research introduces an estimation solution that combines the power of the particle filter with the utility of the video sensor as a general solution for passive target geo-location on-board multiple UAVs. The particle filter is taken advantage of, with its ability to use all of the available information about the system model, system uncertainty, and the sensor uncertainty to approximate the statistical likelihood of the target state. The geo-location particle filter is tested online and in real-time in a simulation environment involving multiple UAVs with video cameras and a maneuvering ground vehicle as a target. Simulation results show the geo-location particle filter estimates the target location with a high accuracy, the addition of UAVs or particles to the system improves the location estimation accuracy with minimal addition of processing time, and UAV control and trajectory generation algorithms restrict each UAV to a desired range to minimize error.

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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) have been the focus of significant research interest in both military and commercial areas since they have a variety of practical applications including reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, search and rescue, patrolling, real-time monitoring, and mapping, to name a few. To increase the autonomy and the capability of these UAV's and thus to reduce the workload of human operators, typical autonomous UAV's are usually equipped with both a navigation system and a tracking system. The navigation system provides high-rate ownship states (typically ownship inertial position, inertial velocity, and attitude) that are directly used in the autopilot system, and the tracking system provides low-rate target tracking states (typically target relative position and velocity with respect to the ownship). Target states in the global frame can be obtained by adding the ownship states and the target tracking states. The data estimated from this combination of the navigation system and the tracking system provide key information for the design of most UAV guidance laws, control command generation, trajectory generation, and path planning. As a baseline system that estimates ownship states, an integrated navigation system is designed by using an extended Kalman filter (EKF) with sequential measurement updates. In order to effectively fuse various sources of aiding sensor information, the sequential measurement update algorithm is introduced in the design of the integrated navigation system with the objective of being implemented in low-cost autonomous UAV's. Since estimated state accuracy using a low-cost, MEMS-based IMU degrades with time, several absolute (low update rate but bounded error in time) sensors, including the GPS receiver, the magnetometer, and the altimeter, can compensate for time-degrading errors. In this work, the sequential measurement update algorithm in smaller vectors and matrices is capable of providing a convenient framework for fusing the many sources of information in the design of integrated navigation systems. In this framework, several aiding sensor measurements with different size and update rates are easily fused with basic high-rate IMU processing. In order to provide a new mechanism that estimates ownship states, a new nonlinear filtering framework, called the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) with sequential measurement updates, is developed and applied to the design of a new integrated navigation system. The UKF is known to be more accurate and convenient to use with a slightly higher computational cost. This filter provides at least second-order accuracy by approximating Gaussian distributions rather than arbitrary nonlinear functions. This is compared to the first-order accuracy of the well-known EKF based on linearization. In addition, the step of computing the often troublesome Jacobian matrices, always required in the design of an integrated navigation system using the EKF, is eliminated. Furthermore, by employing the concept of sequential measurement updates in the UKF, we can add the advantages of sequential measurement update strategy such as easy compensation of sensor latency, easy fusion of multi-sensors, and easy addition and subtraction of new sensors while maintaining those of the standard UKF such as accurate estimation and removal of Jacobian matrices. Simulation results show better performance of the UKF-based navigation system than the EKF-based system since the UKF-based system is more robust to initial accelerometer and rate gyro biases and more accurate in terms of reducing transient peaks and steady-state errors in ownship state estimation. In order to estimate target tracking states or target kinematics, a new vision-based tracking system is designed by using a UKF in the scenario of three-dimensional air-to-air tracking. The tracking system can estimate not only the target tracking states but also several target characteristics including target size and acceleration. By introducing the UKF, the new vision-based tracking system presents good estimation performance by overcoming the highly nonlinear characteristics of the problem with a relatively simplified formulation. Moreover, the computational step of messy Jacobian matrices involved in the target acceleration dynamics and angular measurements is removed. A new particle filtering framework, called an extended marginalized particle filter (EMPF), is developed and applied to the design of a new vision-based tracking system. In this work, only three position components with vision measurements are solved in particle filtering part by applying Rao-Blackwellization or marginalization approach, and the other dynamics, including the target nonlinear acceleration model, with Gaussian noise are effectively handled by using the UKF. Since vision information can be better represented by probabilistic measurements and the EMPF framework can be easily extended to handle this type of measurements, better performance in estimating target tracking states will be achieved by directly incorporating non-Gaussian, probabilistic vision information as the measurement inputs to the vision-based tracking system in the EMPF framework.

The objective of this research is to demonstrate how an underlying system's state vector distribution can be determined in a distributed heterogeneous sensor network with reduced subspace observability at the individual nodes. We show how the network, as a whole, is capable of observing the target state vector even if the individual nodes are not capable of observing it locally. The initialization algorithm presented in this work can generate the initial state vector distribution for networks with a variety of sensor types as long as the measurements at the individual nodes are known functions of the target state vector. Initialization is accomplished through a novel distributed implementation of the particle filter that involves serial particle proposal and weighting strategies, which can be accomplished without sharing raw data between individual nodes in the network. The algorithm is capable of handling missed detections and clutter as well as compensating for delays introduced by processing, communication and finite signal propagation velocities. If multiple events of interest occur, their individual states can be initialized simultaneously without requiring explicit data association across nodes. The resulting distributions can be used to initialize a variety of distributed joint tracking algorithms. In such applications, the initialization algorithm can initialize additional target tracks as targets come and go during the operation of the system with multiple targets under track.