User based data fusion approaches

Abstract

Technology advances in computers, sensors, communications, navigation systems, etc. have lead to significant increases in throughput and capacity of systems. This phenomenon has lead to vast amounts of residing in C4ISR systems and available to users. In addition that large amounts of requires updating and taxes communications resources supporting those system. This situation creates a significant information overload to the users in many operational environments, when the is presented in a raw form. Without advanced data/information architectures and techniques, the user, often resorts to viewing that from a single sensor or single database viewpoint. In many cases, the user performs the by cycling though the and database, as similarities or changes in the are seen or heard. In effect the user's eyes and ears performs, visual and acoustic data fusion. In many tactical and intelligence environments, the war fighter may need to perform across the myriad databases (e.g. communications, datalink, combat direction, command and control, intelligence, etc,) so that information is produced from that resides in databases or are available from real time/non real time sensors. Without fusion, the user is faced with dealing in that is redundant, inconsistent and conflicting. In many cases there are errors in measurements and may be incomplete. To support the user, architectures must be examined to prevent/mitigate information overload and to expedite processing of the vast amounts of data. This paper examines the user's challenges, examines three major architectures for and provides results from the architectures examined, which include: a. Centralized approach over all residing in the databases available where the fused would be deposited in a fusion database. b. Leaving databases completely separate and perform the only when the use/user requires/needs the information. c. Hybrids of the two. Pros and cons for each architecture are presented and examples provided in a littoral environment. The approach presented is significant and will lead to architectures for in defense, intelligence, and homeland defense and air traffic control systems.