Probability Based Optimal Algorithms for Multi-sensor Multi-target Detection

Abstract

The algorithm presented in this paper is designed to be used in automated multi-sensor surveillance systems which require observation of targets in a bounded area to optimize the performance of the system. There have been many approaches which deal with multi-sensor tracking and observation, but there haven't been many which deal purely with targets detections i.e. each target needs to only be detected once. The metric used to gauge the performance of the system is percentage of targets detected among those that enter the area. Targets enter the area through source points on the side of the area according to Poisson distribution, the rate of entry is constant for all sources. The algorithm presented here uses target arrival information, sensor positions to generate an optimal motion strategy for the multi-sensor system every T time-steps i.e. every T time-steps, the probability of finding undetected targets is estimated, the optimal sensor paths for the next T time-steps are calculated. The algorithm performs robustly and optimally detecting around 80% of the targets that enter the area