Dynamic Multisensor Exploitation (DYME)

The challenges faced by airborne and ground-based sensors in detecting, classifying, identifying, associating and tracking difficult moving targets, such as insurgent forces, operating in difficult terrain such as mountains and forests will be addressed. Our team will quantify the performance that can be achieved using multi-sensor, multi-spectral, and multi-platform techniques, where the sensors can be homogeneous or heterogeneous and can be co-located or can be separated spatially and/or temporally. The approach will consist of: 1) Developing high-quality physics-based models of surface vehicles, combatant and non-combatant dismounts, either as individuals or in groups, as well as both domesticated and wild animals; 2) Quantifying the individual and complementary performance enhancements to current wide-area ISR sensors that can be achieved by realistic, cost-effective upgrades to these sensors; 3) Investigating how extended-time sensors can be used to form tracklets of groups of closely-spaced target reports and determining the capability of the individual sensor and/or sensor aggregate to detect, locate, classify, identify and track difficult targets in challenging terrain; and 4) Developing techniques to rapidly identify and censor sources of persistent false alarms including clutter tree lines, flowing water, domestic animal feeding areas and wild-life habitats.