Fusion strategies for enhancing decision reliability in multisensor environments

Abstract

Recursive strategies for enhancing the reliability of decisions in multisensor environments through temporal fusion of the individual imperfect decisions are presented in this study. A confidence measure can be associated with each imperfect decision and as such, decisions obtained with a confidence less than an acceptable threshold value are viewed as nondecisions in developing the fused decision. The relative merits of these alternative strategies are discussed and quantitatively compared to identify the most appropriate overall set of strategies for decision fusion in imperfect multisensor environments. Initial, recursive phase, and asymptotic performances of these alternative strategies are compared and discussed to delineate the most appropriate overall operational strategy. © 1996 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.