Affiliations: Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, CA 93555,
USA | Computer Science Department, University of West
Florida, Pensacola, FL 32514, USA | CECS Department, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
65211, USA
Abstract: We describe an automatic target detection system whose objective is
to detect surface-to-air missile launchers and tanks -- small, mobile land
targets. The system uses range and intensity images from a Laser Detection and
Ranging (LADAR) sensor. Each type of image is filtered and passed to a pair of
(different) detectors. Outputs from the four detectors are subsequently
filtered with a Choquet fuzzy integral, and then fused with a generalized mean.
Finally, blob detections are superposed on intensity images for visual
assessment, and blob windows are compared to ground truth to compute
performance statistics. The system is illustrated using images from two scenes
available in several volumes of the Joint Advanced Weapons Guidance data; a
target board site, and the so-called "Chicken Little" outer compound. The main
objective of this article is to document the proposed architecture -- a novel
target detection approach based on fuzzy decision theory -- as a proof of
concept. We have left detailed comparisons with other approaches, as well as
concrete error rate analysis, to another investigation.
Keywords: data fusion, fuzzy systems, image processing, LADAR images, mobile land targets, target detection
