New perspectives on level-four processing in data fusion systems
David L. Hall, A.K. Garga · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1999
One of the top-level processing functions defined in the Joint Directors of Laboratories data fusion processing mode is Level 4 processing. This is a meta-process that monitors the on-going data fusion process to optimize the fusion of data. To date, two basic approaches have been used for Level 4 processing. The first approach uses classic constrained optimization methods to optimize a measure of performance of the data fusion process. The second approach treats Level 4 processing as a classical control problem, invovling dynamic sensor tasking, to meet performance objectives. Both of these approaches generally ignore the human-in-the-loop user, and treat sensor as relatively unintelligent devices. Recent development in smart sensor, improved models of dynamic sensor performance, and advances in cognitive psychology suggests that a new perspective on Level 4 processing is needed. In this paper, the concept of Level 4 processing is extended to exploit these rapid evolutions, resulting in increased performance of data fusion systems.