Algorithms and Architecture for Airborne Minefield Detection

Abstract

The current minefield detection approach is based on a sequential processing employing mine detection followed by minefield detection. In case of patterned minefield, minefield detection algorithms seek to exploit the minefield pattern (such as linearity) while in case of scattered minefield they utilize the spatial distribution of the mine targets. However, significant challenges remain in adequate modeling and detection of the minefield process especially in the presence of false alarms due to cultured as well as natural clutter. A short review of the literature on spatial point processes is included especially for the case of scattered minefields. It is further noted that, minefields are characterized by as a pattern (or spatial distribution) of "similar looking" mine-like objects. The sequential mine-detection followed by mine-field detection paradigm fails to exploit this critical aspect of similarity of targets for minefield detection. In this paper we propose a minefield detection scheme that incorporates similarity based clustering of targets in order to improve the performance of minefield detection. This approach can be interpreted as statistics of a marked point process. Some preliminary comparative ROC curves are evaluated for simulated minefield data in order to show the effectiveness of the minefield detection based on the marked point process. An autonomous self-organizing scheme for on-line clustering of mine-targets is also presented.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Airborne Minefield Detection; False Alarm Mitigation; LAMD; Marked Point Processes; Self-organized Data Clustering; Spatial Point Processes

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0277-786X

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2002

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