Simulator, workstation, and data fusion components for onboard/offboard multi-target multi-sensor fusion

Abstract

The Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL), participating in the Army's largest Advanced Technology Demonstration, has developed a real-time, onboard/offboard multi-sensor, multi-target data fusion system that operates on 14 different sources of information. As the data fusion software developer, ATL created two additional software products in order to effectively design, build, measure, and demonstrate the capabilities of the embeddable information fusion system. A user-friendly, graphical data fusion input simulator (DFIS) was required to facilitate building multi-target, multi-sensor scenarios for fusion stimulation. In addition, since the embedded fusion system has no graphical output, a data fusion workstation (DFWS) was needed to display metrics and output data within each algorithmic step of the fusion process and to provide a fusion demonstration facility. The Data Fusion Input Simulator replicates the performance of 14 onboard and offboard data sources to provide tracks, contact reports, group tracks, and line-of-bearing data.