Target recognition in precision engagement

The report describes this year´s work in the FOI project Precision Engagement in Network Based Defence concerning target recognition with radar, IR, and laser sensors. These are possible choices in the multisensor package of a missile seeker in an air-to-ground application. They have been studied in simulations with respect to their target recognition performance in a common scenario, but with each sensor being treated separately. In addition, topics in performance evaluation have been addressed.For radar a new simulation tool SPECRAY EM has been acquired for simulation with realistic description of scenarios and calculation of radar signatures. Simulations have been made at 35 GHz of target recognition, based on least dissimilarity between high resolution range profiles. Attention has been given to methods for data compression using central moments of range profiles, and by integration of profiles along the missile flight. The IR work has mainly concerned methods for the evaluation of detection and classification performance. A method based on statistical theory is described for general evaluation of functions and algorithms, and which may also be applicable to laser and radar. Alternative heuristic methods are proposed, which make less computational demands. The work with laser radar sensors has concerned development of a simulation tool and methods for target detection and recognition. A target recognition algorithm has been tested on field test data from four fundamentally different laser radar systems. The method is promising but further tests are necessary to achieve general performance measures. The simulation tool can now generate real-like backgrounds and it is possible to create simulated laser radar data for targets in forested scenes.