43 research outputs found

    Distributed Random Set Theoretic Soft/Hard Data Fusion

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    Research on multisensor data fusion aims at providing the enabling technology to combine information from several sources in order to form a unifi ed picture. The literature work on fusion of conventional data provided by non-human (hard) sensors is vast and well-established. In comparison to conventional fusion systems where input data are generated by calibrated electronic sensor systems with well-defi ned characteristics, research on soft data fusion considers combining human-based data expressed preferably in unconstrained natural language form. Fusion of soft and hard data is even more challenging, yet necessary in some applications, and has received little attention in the past. Due to being a rather new area of research, soft/hard data fusion is still in a edging stage with even its challenging problems yet to be adequately de fined and explored. This dissertation develops a framework to enable fusion of both soft and hard data with the Random Set (RS) theory as the underlying mathematical foundation. Random set theory is an emerging theory within the data fusion community that, due to its powerful representational and computational capabilities, is gaining more and more attention among the data fusion researchers. Motivated by the unique characteristics of the random set theory and the main challenge of soft/hard data fusion systems, i.e. the need for a unifying framework capable of processing both unconventional soft data and conventional hard data, this dissertation argues in favor of a random set theoretic approach as the first step towards realizing a soft/hard data fusion framework. Several challenging problems related to soft/hard fusion systems are addressed in the proposed framework. First, an extension of the well-known Kalman lter within random set theory, called Kalman evidential filter (KEF), is adopted as a common data processing framework for both soft and hard data. Second, a novel ontology (syntax+semantics) is developed to allow for modeling soft (human-generated) data assuming target tracking as the application. Third, as soft/hard data fusion is mostly aimed at large networks of information processing, a new approach is proposed to enable distributed estimation of soft, as well as hard data, addressing the scalability requirement of such fusion systems. Fourth, a method for modeling trust in the human agents is developed, which enables the fusion system to protect itself from erroneous/misleading soft data through discounting such data on-the-fly. Fifth, leveraging the recent developments in the RS theoretic data fusion literature a novel soft data association algorithm is developed and deployed to extend the proposed target tracking framework into multi-target tracking case. Finally, the multi-target tracking framework is complemented by introducing a distributed classi fication approach applicable to target classes described with soft human-generated data. In addition, this dissertation presents a novel data-centric taxonomy of data fusion methodologies. In particular, several categories of fusion algorithms have been identifi ed and discussed based on the data-related challenging aspect(s) addressed. It is intended to provide the reader with a generic and comprehensive view of the contemporary data fusion literature, which could also serve as a reference for data fusion practitioners by providing them with conducive design guidelines, in terms of algorithm choice, regarding the specifi c data-related challenges expected in a given application

    Tracking and Estimation of Multiple Cross-Over Targets in Clutter

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    Tracking problems, including unknown number of targets, target trajectories behaviour and uncertain motion of targets in the surveillance region, are challenging issues. It is also difficult to estimate cross-over targets in heavy clutter density environment. In addition, tracking algorithms including smoothers which use measurements from upcoming scans to estimate the targets are often unsuccessful in tracking due to low detection probabilities. For efficient and better tracking performance, the smoother must rely on backward tracking to fetch measurement from future scans to estimate forward track in the current time. This novel idea is utilized in the joint integrated track splitting (JITS) filter to develop a new fixed-interval smoothing JITS (FIsJITS) algorithm for tracking multiple cross-over targets. The FIsJITS initializes tracks employing JITS in two-way directions: Forward-time moving JITS (fJITS) and backward-time moving JITS (bJITS). The fJITS acquires the bJITS predictions when they arrive from future scans to the current scan for smoothing. As a result, the smoothing multi-target data association probabilities are obtained for computing the fJITS and smoothing output estimates. This significantly improves estimation accuracy for multiple cross-over targets in heavy clutter. To verify this, numerical assessments of the FIsJITS are tested and compared with existing algorithms using simulations

    Uncertainty modelling and computational aspects of data association

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    A novel solution to the smoothing problem for multi-object dynamical systems is proposed and evaluated. The systems of interest contain an unknown and varying number of dynamical objects that are partially observed under noisy and corrupted observations. In order to account for the lack of information about the different aspects of this type of complex system, an alternative representation of uncertainty based on possibility theory is considered. It is shown how analogues of usual concepts such as Markov chains and hidden Markov models (HMMs) can be introduced in this context. In particular, the considered statistical model for multiple dynamical objects can be formulated as a hierarchical model consisting of conditionally independent HMMs. This structure is leveraged to propose an efficient method in the context of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) by relying on an approximate solution to the corresponding filtering problem, in a similar fashion to particle MCMC. This approach is shown to outperform existing algorithms in a range of scenarios

    Remote Sensing

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    This dual conception of remote sensing brought us to the idea of preparing two different books; in addition to the first book which displays recent advances in remote sensing applications, this book is devoted to new techniques for data processing, sensors and platforms. We do not intend this book to cover all aspects of remote sensing techniques and platforms, since it would be an impossible task for a single volume. Instead, we have collected a number of high-quality, original and representative contributions in those areas

    Sensor-based Collision Avoidance System for the Walking Machine ALDURO

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    This work presents a sensor system develop for the robot ALDURO (Antropomorphically Legged and Wheeled Duisburg Robot), in order to allow it to detect and avoid obstacles when moving in unstructured terrains. The robot is a large-scale hydraulically driven 4-legged walking-machine, developed at the Duisburg-Essen University, with 16 degrees of freedom at each leg and will be steered by an operator sitting in a cab on the robot body. The Cartesian operator instructions are processed by a control computer, which converts them into appropriate autonomous leg movements, what makes necessary that the robot automatically recognizes the obstacles (rock, trunks, holes, etc.) on its way, locates and avoids them. A system based on ultra-sound sensors was developed to carry this task on, but there are intrinsic problems with such sensors, concerning to their poor angular precision. To overcome that, a fuzzy model of the used ultra-sound sensor, based on the characteristics of the real one, was developed to include the uncertainties about the measures. A posterior fuzzy inference builds from the measured data a map of the robot’s surroundings, to be used as input to the navigation system. This whole sensor system was implemented at a test stand, where a real size leg of the robot is fully functional. The sensors are assembled in an I2C net, which uses a micro-controller as interface to the main controller (a personal computer). That enables to relieve the main controller of some data processing, which is carried by the microcontroller on. The sensor system was tested together with the fuzzy data inference, and different arrangements to the sensors and settings of the inference system were tried, in order to achieve a satisfactory result

    Temporal - spatial recognizer for multi-label data

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    Pattern recognition is an important artificial intelligence task with practical applications in many fields such as medical and species distribution. Such application involves overlapping data points which are demonstrated in the multi- label dataset. Hence, there is a need for a recognition algorithm that can separate the overlapping data points in order to recognize the correct pattern. Existing recognition methods suffer from sensitivity to noise and overlapping points as they could not recognize a pattern when there is a shift in the position of the data points. Furthermore, the methods do not implicate temporal information in the process of recognition, which leads to low quality of data clustering. In this study, an improved pattern recognition method based on Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) is proposed to solve the overlapping in data points of multi- label dataset. The imHTM (Improved HTM) method includes improvement in two of its components; feature extraction and data clustering. The first improvement is realized as TS-Layer Neocognitron algorithm which solves the shift in position problem in feature extraction phase. On the other hand, the data clustering step, has two improvements, TFCM and cFCM (TFCM with limit- Chebyshev distance metric) that allows the overlapped data points which occur in patterns to be separated correctly into the relevant clusters by temporal clustering. Experiments on five datasets were conducted to compare the proposed method (imHTM) against statistical, template and structural pattern recognition methods. The results showed that the percentage of success in recognition accuracy is 99% as compared with the template matching method (Featured-Based Approach, Area-Based Approach), statistical method (Principal Component Analysis, Linear Discriminant Analysis, Support Vector Machines and Neural Network) and structural method (original HTM). The findings indicate that the improved HTM can give an optimum pattern recognition accuracy, especially the ones in multi- label dataset
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