Fusion of radar and acoustic data

Lockheed Sanders is developing a multisensor fusion process which combines acoustic and radar data. Acoustic and radar data are highly orthogonal in that they can provide complementary information about each target. Therefore, the fusion process permits generation of a high confidence level target ID (positive ID) by combining outputs of classifiers which involve acoustic waveforms, radar signatures and a track shape, where positive identification from individual classifiers is not possible. Reductions in target location error and improvements in the measurement to track association process are obtained by the fusion process. The approach of using simulation to design sensor fusion processing is demonstrated for the specific example of radar and acoustic data