Asymptotic temporal fusion benefits in a three-sensor suite
Belur V. Dasarathy · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2000
Decision fusion benefits in a three-sensor suite environment, where in the sensor suite had only a single observation opportunity was assessed in a recent study. This study is extended here to the more general case wherein the sensors have multiple observation opportunities permitting in essence temporal fusion. In the earlier study, two different fusion system architectures were conceived. These architectures are (1) single stage--wherein the outputs from all the three sensors are fused simultaneously, and (2) dual-stage--wherein fusion occurs in two stages, first between two sensors, and next between this fused output and the third sensor. This study addresses the problem of temporal fusion, i.e., fusion across multiple observations, under the single-stage fusion system architecture, examining all the four fusion strategies identified in the previous study. The special case of matched sensors with identical performance characteristics is used to parametrically compare and contrast the asymptotic performances under the different strategies.