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.

Date Published: 5 May 2010
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 7666, Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense IX, 76662I (5 May 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.851140

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7666:
Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense IX
Edward M. Carapezza, Editor(s)