Closing the ISR-Navigation loop

Due to the lack of sufficiently accurate real-time information about the availability and quality of the data that is being collected to meet the ISR goals, opportunities to fill in coverage holes can hardly be detected during an on-going mission. The goal of the research presented in this paper is to provide the operator with so-called coverage awareness by providing the information needed to assess the availability of the collected data in reference to locations about which information is required. The concept relies on three elements. The main element is a so-called coverage database which is updated in real-time with information about the locations that have been surveyed, the sensors used and the time this occurred. The second element is a module that creates the content of the coverage database in realtime, using the vehicle and sensor state to compute the footprint covered by the surveillance sensor(s). The third element is the visualization module which is used to translate elements of the coverage database into a graphical overlay which can be conformally integrated with a conventional map. The first part of the paper discusses the rationale underlying the concept. Next, the coverage database, the real-time update process and the visualization concept are discussed in more detail. In the third part of the paper, the concept is illustrated using an example situation created in a simulation environment.