Mobile-Agent-Based Collaborative Sensor Fusion

The network-centric warfare concept relies heavily on disparate sensor information, coming from the ground (e.g. special ops), the surface (including USVs), various manned and unmanned air vehicles, and space, all processed and made available on tactical and strategic networks to a variety of users. Many such sensors distributed in a littoral environment would result in a complex mesh of information, motivating fusion approaches that take into consideration the communication and energy constraints of the sensors. Such complex fusion, processing, and distribution concepts will require next-generation solutions including automated sensor tasking, information and network management, distributed data fusion, and new approaches to information distribution. Aurora is proposing to develop an approach that covers all the aspects of the solicited technology from the study of sensors and how to most efficiently combine them for multi-target tracking (MTT), to the implementation of advanced data fusion and association techniques from geographically distributed, heterogeneous sensors, to the development of a communication and energy efficient network architecture based on the innovative mobile agent concept, that will provide operators with a reliable operational picture. Aurora’s experience on multi-vehicle coordination and sensor fusion for MTT puts it in a unique position to meet the challenges of this solicitation.