A neural network based hybrid system for detection, characterization, and classification of short-duration oceanic signals

A comprehensive classifier system is presented for short-duration oceanic signals obtained from passive sonar, which exhibit variability in both temporal and spectral characteristics even in signals obtained from the same source. Wavelet-based feature extractors are shown to be superior to the more commonly used autoregressive coefficients and power spectral coefficients for describing these signals. A variety of static neural network classifiers are evaluated and are shown to compare favorably with traditional statistical techniques for signal classification. The focus is on those networks that are able to time-out irrelevant input features and are less susceptible to noisy inputs, and two new neural-network-based classifiers are introduced. Methods for combining the outputs of several classifiers to yield a more accurate labeling are proposed and evaluated. These methods lead to higher classification accuracy and provide a mechanism for recognizing deviant signals and false alarms. Performance results are given for signals in the DARPA standard data set I