Overview of contextual tracking approaches in information fusion

Proceedings of: Geospatial InfoFusion III. 2-3 May 2013 Baltimore, Maryland, United States.Many information fusion solutions work well in the intended scenarios; but the applications, supporting data, and capabilities change over varying contexts. One example is weather data for electro-optical target trackers of which standards have evolved over decades. The operating conditions of: technology changes, sensor/target variations, and the contextual environment can inhibit performance if not included in the initial systems design. In this paper, we seek to define and categorize different types of contextual information. We describe five contextual information categories that support target tracking: (1) domain knowledge from a user to aid the information fusion process through selection, cueing, and analysis, (2) environment-to-hardware processing for sensor management, (3) known distribution of entities for situation/threat assessment, (4) historical traffic behavior for situation awareness patterns of life (POL), and (5) road information for target tracking and identification. Appropriate characterization and representation of contextual information is needed for future high-level information fusion systems design to take advantage of the large data content available for a priori knowledge target tracking algorithm construction, implementation, and application.Publicad

Increasing Accuracy in Train Localization Exploiting Track-Geometry Constraints

Train-borne localization systems as a key component of future signalling systems are expected to offer huge economic and operational advances for the railway transportation sector. However, the reliable provision of a track-selective and constantly available location information is still unsolved and prevents the introduction of such systems so far. A contribution to overcome this issue is presented here. We show a recursive multistage filtering approach with an increased cross-track positioning accuracy, which is decisive to ensure track-selectivity. This is achieved by exploiting track-geometry constraints known in advance, as there are strict rules for the construction of railway tracks. Additionally, compact geometric track-maps can be extracted during the filtering process which are beneficial for existing train localization approaches. The filter was derived applying approximate Bayesian inference. The geometry constraints are directly incorporated in the filter design, utilizing an interacting multiple model (IMM) filter and extended Kalman filters (EKF). Throughout simulations the performance of the filter is analyzed and discussed thereafter

Aplicación de un sistema de posicionamiento óptimo de sensores al diseño de un entorno distribuido de agrupaciones de micrófonos

En este trabajo se plantea un sistema desarrollado en MATLAB que permite obtener la ubicación óptima de un conjunto de sensores o micrófonos para la localización de objetivos en un entorno cerrado. Dicha ubicación óptima se obtiene mediante el uso de un algoritmo genético que minimiza el error de localización para sistemas basados en TDOA y en SRP. Todo el sistema está gobernado con una interfaz gráfica de MATLAB que permite agilizar el uso de las funciones y modificar muy fácilmente todos los parámetros de éstas. Palabras clave: Localización, TDOA, SRP, posicionamiento óptimo de sensores, agrupaciones de micrófonosThis work outlines the features and functioning of a specifically created MATLAB-developed system which allows obtaining the optimal positioning of sensors or microphone arrays for the localization of objectives in a closed environment. This optimal positioning is obtained thanks to a genetic algorithm that minimizes localization errors for TDOA and SRP-based systems. The whole system is being ruled by a MATLAB graphic interface which allows accelerating the usage of functions and easily modifying all of their parameters.Grado en Ingeniería Electrónica de Comunicacione

Informative Path Planning and Sensor Scheduling for Persistent Monitoring Tasks

In this thesis we consider two combinatorial optimization problems that relate to the field of persistent monitoring. In the first part, we extend the classic problem of finding the maximum weight Hamiltonian cycle in a graph to the case where the objective is a submodular function of the edges. We consider a greedy algorithm and a 2-matching based algorithm, and we show that they have approximation factors of 1/2+κ and max{2/(3(2+κ)),(2/3)(1-κ)} respectively, where κ is the curvature of the submodular function. Both algorithms require a number of calls to the submodular function that is cubic to the number of vertices in the graph. We then present a method to solve a multi-objective optimization consisting of both additive edge costs and submodular edge rewards. We provide simulation results to empirically evaluate the performance of the algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate an application in monitoring an environment using an autonomous mobile sensor, where the sensing reward is related to the entropy reduction of a given a set of measurements. In the second part, we study the problem of selecting sensors to obtain the most accurate state estimate of a linear system. The estimator is taken to be a Kalman filter and we attempt to optimize the a posteriori error covariance. For a finite time horizon, we show that, under certain restrictive conditions, the problem can be phrased as a submodular function optimization and that a greedy approach yields a 1-1/(e^(1-1/e))-approximation. Next, for an infinite time horizon, we characterize the exact conditions for the existence of a schedule with bounded estimation error covariance. We then present a scheduling algorithm that guarantees that the error covariance will be bounded and that the error will die out exponentially for any detectable LTI system. Simulations are provided to compare the performance of the algorithm against other known techniques

Advances and Applications of Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT) for Information Fusion (Collected Works), Vol. 4

The fourth volume on Advances and Applications of Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT) for information fusion collects theoretical and applied contributions of researchers working in different fields of applications and in mathematics. The contributions (see List of Articles published in this book, at the end of the volume) have been published or presented after disseminating the third volume (2009, http://fs.unm.edu/DSmT-book3.pdf) in international conferences, seminars, workshops and journals. First Part of this book presents the theoretical advancement of DSmT, dealing with Belief functions, conditioning and deconditioning, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Decision Making, Multi-Criteria, evidence theory, combination rule, evidence distance, conflicting belief, sources of evidences with different importance and reliabilities, importance of sources, pignistic probability transformation, Qualitative reasoning under uncertainty, Imprecise belief structures, 2-Tuple linguistic label, Electre Tri Method, hierarchical proportional redistribution, basic belief assignment, subjective probability measure, Smarandache codification, neutrosophic logic, Evidence theory, outranking methods, Dempster-Shafer Theory, Bayes fusion rule, frequentist probability, mean square error, controlling factor, optimal assignment solution, data association, Transferable Belief Model, and others. More applications of DSmT have emerged in the past years since the apparition of the third book of DSmT 2009. Subsequently, the second part of this volume is about applications of DSmT in correlation with Electronic Support Measures, belief function, sensor networks, Ground Moving Target and Multiple target tracking, Vehicle-Born Improvised Explosive Device, Belief Interacting Multiple Model filter, seismic and acoustic sensor, Support Vector Machines, Alarm classification, ability of human visual system, Uncertainty Representation and Reasoning Evaluation Framework, Threat Assessment, Handwritten Signature Verification, Automatic Aircraft Recognition, Dynamic Data-Driven Application System, adjustment of secure communication trust analysis, and so on. Finally, the third part presents a List of References related with DSmT published or presented along the years since its inception in 2004, chronologically ordered