Adaptive design and characterization of features for SAR ATR

David Blacknell

doi:10.1117/12.438218

27 August 2001 Adaptive design and characterization of features for SAR ATR

David Blacknell

Proceedings Volume 4382, Algorithms for Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery VIII; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.438218
Event: Aerospace/Defense Sensing, Simulation, and Controls, 2001, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an essential sensor for military surface surveillance because of its unique ability to operate day or night through weather, smoke and dust. Of particular importance is the problem of automatic target recognition (ATR) which aims to identify targets of military significance within radar images. The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency of the UK has a substantial program of research into ATR algorithms for SAR battlefield surveillance. This covers both feature-based techniques which are the subject of this paper and model-based techniques. Feature-based ATR discriminates between target classes on the basis of the values taken by certain target features. The conventional approach is to select the best features for a particular task from a large set of features which have been pre-defined on the basis of physical intuition. A simple feature might be target area whilst a more sophisticated feature might be some measure of fractal dimension. ATR performance will be influenced by the type of features used and by the accuracy with which the statistical behavior of these features despite limited examples of target realizations. It also addresses the problem of feature choice by introducing a method for adaptive feature design which automatically recognizes the information not already contained in the existing feature set and develops a feature to represent this missing information. These ideas are illustrated by application to synthetic aperture radar images of vehicles.

Citation Download Citation

David Blacknell "Adaptive design and characterization of features for SAR ATR", Proc. SPIE 4382, Algorithms for Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery VIII, (27 August 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.438218

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