KEYWORDS: Sensors, Sensor networks, Computer simulations, Position sensors, Target detection, Binary data, Data fusion, 3D acquisition, Detection and tracking algorithms, System integration
Large scale sensor networks composed of many low-cost small sensors networked together with a small number of high
fidelity position sensors can provide a robust, fast and accurate air defense and warning system. The team has been
developing simulations of such large networks, and is now adding terrain data in an effort to provide more realistic
analysis of the approach. This work, a heterogeneous sensor network simulation system with integrated terrain data for
real-time target detection in a three-dimensional environment is presented. The sensor network can be composed of large
numbers of low fidelity binary and bearing-only sensors, and small numbers of high fidelity position sensors, such as
radars. The binary and bearing-only sensors are randomly distributed over a large geographic region; while the position
sensors are distributed evenly. The elevations of the sensors are determined through the use of DTED Level 0 dataset.
The targets are located through fusing measurement information from all types of sensors modeled by the simulation.
The network simulation utilizes the same search-based optimization algorithm as in our previous two-dimensional sensor
network simulation with some significant modifications. The fusion algorithm is parallelized using spatial
decomposition approach: the entire surveillance area is divided into small regions and each region is assigned to one
compute node. Each node processes sensor measurements and terrain data only for the assigned sub region. A master
process combines the information from all the compute nodes to get the overall network state. The simulation results
have indicated that the distributed fusion algorithm is efficient enough so that an optimal solution can be reached before
the arrival of the next sensor data with a reasonable time interval, and real-time target detection can be achieved. The
simulation was performed on a Linux cluster with communication between nodes facilitated by the Message Passing
Interface (MPI). The input target information for the simulations is a set of modified target track data generated from a
realistic theater level air combat simulation. The probability of detection (POD), false alarm rate (FAR), and average
deviation (AVD) are used in evaluating the network performance.
An architecture for an integrated air combat and sensor network simulation is presented. The architecture integrates two
components: a parallel real-time sensor fusion and target tracking simulation, and an air combat simulation. By
integrating these two simulations, it becomes possible to experiment with scenarios in which one or both sides in a
battle have very large numbers of primitive passive sensors, and to assess the likely effects of those sensors on the
outcome of the battle. Modern Air Power is a real-time theater-level air combat simulation that is currently being used
as a part of the USAF Air and Space Basic Course (ASBC). The simulation includes a variety of scenarios from the
Vietnam war to the present day, and also includes several hypothetical future scenarios. Modern Air Power includes a
scenario editor, an order of battle editor, and full AI customization features that make it possible to quickly construct
scenarios for any conflict of interest. The scenario editor makes it possible to place a wide variety of sensors including
both high fidelity sensors such as radars, and primitive passive sensors that provide only very limited information. The
parallel real-time sensor network simulation is capable of handling very large numbers of sensors on a computing
cluster of modest size. It can fuse information provided by disparate sensors to detect and track targets, and produce target tracks.
Real-time target tracking in large disparate sensor networks has been simulated with a parallelized search based data
fusion algorithm using a simulated annealing approach. The networks are composed of large numbers of low fidelity
binary and bearing-only sensors, and small numbers of high fidelity position sensors over a large region. The primitive
sensors provide limited information, not sufficient to locate targets; the position sensors can report both range and
direction of the targets. Target positions are determined through fusing information from all types of sensors. A score
function, which takes into account the fidelity of sensors of different types, is defined and used as the evaluation function
for the optimization search. The fusion algorithm is parallelized using spatial decomposition so that the fusion process
can finish before the arrival of the next set of sensor data. A series of target tracking simulations are performed on a
Linux cluster with communication between nodes facilitated by the Message Passing Interface (MPI). The probability of
detection (POD), false alarm rate (FAR), and average deviation (AVD) are used to evaluate the network performance.
The input target information used for all the simulations is a set of target track data created from a theater level air
combat simulation.
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