A System Approach to Adaptive Multimodal Sensor Designs

Abstract

We propose a system approach to adaptive multimodal sensor designs. This approach is based on the integration of tools for the physics-based simulation of complex scenes and targets, sensor modeling, and multimodal data exploitation. The goal is to reduce development time and system cost while achieving optimal results through an iterative process that incorporates simulation, sensing, processing and evaluation. A Data Process Management Architecture (DPMA) is designed, which is a software system that provides a team development environment and a structured operational platform for systems that require many interrelated and coordinated steps. As a case study, we use an effective peripheral fovea design as an example. This design is inspired by the biological vision systems for achieving real-time target detection and recognition with a hyperspectral/range fovea and panoramic peripheral view. This design will be simulated and evaluated by realistic scene and target simulations, and the related data exploitation algorithms will be discussed.