Sensor Data Processing and Sensor Fusion
Sensing and associated processing forms a critical and fundamental component in almost all defence and security systems and is a key enabling technology for autonomous systems. Imagers that are integrated in vehicles, marine vessels, drones, spacecrafts, missiles and rockets provide solutions to the whole defence ecosystem including situation awareness, surveillance, intelligence, measurement, monitoring and execution.
The impressive depth of available observations in real-time and along time enables synergistic use and the development of dedicated multi-temporal algorithms and fusion schemes for extracting valuable information. Unfortunately, the huge diversity of sensors and data volume raise many unique challenges such as computation cost, data harmonization, and data interface abstraction.
Recent researches within NATO and EDA highlighted the requirement for dedicated data dictionaries, selection, transmission, normalization, integration, localization, visualization, management, and computational frameworks for relevant information extraction.
This axis covers electro-optical, radar and laser based technologies as well as advanced sensing such as hyperspectral, terahertz and laser spectroscopy. It also includes multi-sensing platforms and systems, processing algorithms and solutions that accelerate computation and enable automation, robustness and accuracy. The goal of this axis is also to explore the integration of emerging localization approaches such as GNSS and PRS, and outline future research directions and applications including image-intelligence (IMINT), anti-terrorism, cyber and CBRNE.