The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the feasibility of using neural networks in conjunction with the Fourier Modified Direct Mellin Transform (FMDMT) for the recognition of ship targets. The FMDMT is a modification of the Direct Mellin Transform for digital implementations, and is applied to the magnitudes of the Discrete Fourier Transforms (DFT) of range profiles of ships. Necessity for the use of the FMDMT is corroborated by the fact that features can be extracted from the range profiles of targets, regardless of target aspect angle. Variation in aspect angle results in variation of the independent variable. Feature extraction is made possible by the scale invariant properties of the Mellin Transform. Substantial emphasis was placed on preprocessing techniques applied in the implementation of the FMDMT on simulated range profiles and in particular, real ship profiles. The FMDMT was thus examined extensively and utilised as it was developed and demonstrated in [20]. At the completion of this examination, the recognition procedures and methods were applied on simulated data with the aid of a radar simulator developed and adapted for this dissertation. Results of the recognition of simulated ship targets were scrutinized closely and recorded. Employment of this procedure afforded the ability to compare the recognition results for real ship data with those of simulated ship data at a later stage. Acquisition of a large database of ship profiles was made successful by a ship target data capture plan implemented at the Institute for Maritime Technology (IMT) in Simon's Town. The database included the radar range profile data for the SAS Protea and the Outeniqua, which carried out several successful full circular manoeuvres in the line of sight of the search radar utilised (Raytheon). The relevant ships performed these circular manoeuvres in order that the acquired data incorporate radar range profiles of the relevant ships at most aspect angles from 0 degrees to 360 degrees. Extensive and thorough testing of the performance of the FMDMT would thus be possible since every possible aspect angle would be scrutinized. Preprocessing of data and recognition of targets was implemented in exactly the same manner and order as was the case with the simulated ship data. Extensive examination of the FMDMT revealed that the MDMT should only be applied to one side of a real and even Fourier Transform of a ship target. Literature on the FMDMT had failed to elaborate on this point. Comparison of the recognition results for real and simulated data, indicates a great similarity in success, thus validating the methods and procedures described theoretically and adopted practically for preprocessing of the radar range profiles and recognition of the targets. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of ship target recognition using the procedures and methods incorporated in the dissertation, real ship data for an entire range of different ships should be acquired in the same manner as indicated above. Bibliography: pages 117-118.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/22040 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Serretta, Hyram |
| Contributors | Inggs, Michael |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Department of Electrical Engineering |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MSc (Eng) |
| Format | application/pdf |
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