The role of acoustic ground sensors in multi-sensor surveillance systems

Abstract

814-865-871 1 Abstract - Acoustic ground sensors have an extensive history for tactical surveillance. During World War II, prior to the invention of radar, acoustic sensors were used as early warning devices to detect the approach of bombers. Subsequently, acoustic sensors have been used in multiple conflicts for surveillance to detect people, ground vehicles, and airborne vehicles. Detection, identification, and localization capabilities have become increasingly sophisticated with improvements in acoustic antenna, signal processing and pattern recognition techniques. Despite these improvements, ground-based acoustic sensors have often been viewed as unreliable and inaccurate due to wide variability of performance due to atmospheric conditions (viz., winds, temperature gradients, etc.). In this paper we argue that advances in information processing of ground-based acoustic sensor data make these sensors a valuable component of heterogeneous multi-sensor surveillance systems. The Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) data fusion process model is introduced, and the role of ground-based acoustic sensors described for each function within the JDL processing model.