MODELS OF INTELLIGENT MARINE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS
Zoran Đorđević, Aleksandar Jovanović, Aleksandar Perović, Group for Intelligent Systems,
Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, phone +381 11 2027801,
Contact email: dzoran1@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
In this paper, the models of intelligent real time marine
surveillance systems are treated. Perception from diverse
sensory vectors is linked to the perception recognition,
classification, decision modelling and behaviour, which in
certain complex systems includes robotic real time
coordination.
Key words: radar and sonar signal analysis, small object
recognition and tracking, sensory data fusion, adaptive
controls, intelligent behaviour.
1. INTRODUCTION
The history of marine surveillance systems has reach
variety of examples with some application diversity, all,
however, evolving into fast real time highly efficient
intelligent systems, where all subsystems and system
components were subjected to drastic changes and radical
improvements, their designers reacting promptly to the
technology advances, which did not reach the limits yet. At
present, it is even hard to list all sorts of existing systems
which vary in functionality depending on the purpose,
performance demands and costs. Moreover, there is a general
tendency to the interconnection and higher level integration,
which sets the demands for standards for all interchangeable
data. All now days existing systems suffer to some level of
certain operational difficulties, blindness, imprecision and
instability, related to a variety of methodological and
technical limitations and meteorology factors and with a lot
of efforts the problems are reduced or eliminated. In this
evolution, the significance of method advances and
improvements and their implementation are crucial.
Before focusing more to the specific systems in our
attention, let us briefly list some specific system sorts which
reached routine broad application.
1. Satellite based tracking of tagged marine life
species.
2. AIS – satellite tracking of all vessels.
3. Satellite based rescue positioning.
4. Small vessel integral navigation systems.
5. Airborne recognisance.
6. Ships marine object detection and collision
avoidance systems.
7. Civil coastal marine surveillance.
8. Military marine surveillance.
9. Integrated combat systems.
All of listed systems use GPS, digital maps and rely on
weather real time data and maps, which are often available in
client parts of applications as separate layers. The lower five
all have single radar or multiple radar of different types and
performance real time inputs as the most important sensors,
which might be dedicated for air traffic or marine
surveillance. The last two have obviously provisions for
detection of objects in the air, on the sea and under the sea,
which, beside radar inputs, obviously include variety of
optical, IR and ultrasonic sensors, with a multitude of tactic
and strategic operational functions, including automatic
intelligent robotic control and decision making support.
In the sorts of systems lower on the list, the intelligence
is a demand at the different levels in the systems hierarchy.
We have been involved in solutions of a variety of problems
present in the mentioned and complementary contexts,
starting with perception inputs correction, adaptation and
processing, automatic activation of less and more complex
robotized systems, their intelligent guidance, up to the high
level intelligent real time decision modelling.
In this article we will focus more to some problems
related to the processing of marine radar inputs as the core in
the models of intelligent marine surveillance systems. Never
the less, solutions explained are applicable in other systems
mentioned above. Problems related to visual and ultrasonic
information processing with feature and spectroscopic feature
localisation, extraction, comparison and classification are
treated in references [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22] and [23]
with the solutions applicable to high extent to the marine
context as well.
2. METHOD
There are diverse models of automated object tracking on
the sea based on the radar image processing. By radar we
mean a classical navigational ship radar of pulse type with
processing of the amplitude of reflected signal. The images
received by this type of radar, beside the desirable
information of moving and fixed objects of small/dot size,
contain coastal contour and are contaminated by noise
originating in sea, rain and clouds.
Radar
Transceiver
Trigger
A ntenna Angle
Bitm ap Picture
Lin-Log V ideo
G enerator
Figure 1. Model of radar with the bit map forming system
In the comercial marine radars, the most frequent way of
operation is a semiautomatic [1]. The interesting object on
the radar display is marked by operator, initiating the marked
object tracking only. If the current marine situation contains
up to a dozen objects, the operator can handle it easily. If this
number is exceeded it becomes a serious problem. How acute
is the mentioned problem is best witnessed by the
introduction of Automatic Identification System - AIS in
recent decade, in order to facilitate the moving object
tracking. Beside AIS, military systems feature Doppler signal
processing, aiming to the reduction of information to only the
moving objects, making all non-moving feature invisible.
Unfortunately, this technology is expensive and limited to
military systems, with extra problem: small radial velocity
objects might be erased.
Suppose that a marine radar for civil use [1] is linked to a
grey scale bit map image forming system of 2048*2048
pixels, which is refreshed at least once during one antenna
rotation cycle. Suppose that this cycle lasts 4 seconds. Our
proposed processing algorithm, begins every 4th seconds
synchronized with antenna pass thru a referent angular
position. The mentioned bitmap represents the information
from the sensor.
In the first step the algorithm tries to detect characteristic
details of small/dot size – the detection cycle. Instead of
classical methods [1], [10], we have applied the alternative
way, based on results focused on the detection and tracking
of characteristic features on the bitmap images as published
in [4], [5], [9], enriched with our approaches in [20], [21],
[22] and [23]. The application of a neural network of radian
base type, as roughly suggested in [8], is alternative method.
Figure 2. Elemnts of inteligence and the functional
relationships between them.
The results of the first step are the dot information – plots.
The sets of dots obtained from the next detection cycle
algorithm tries to match with the set of dots from the
previous cycle, using the nearest neighbour method pairing.
We use an adaptation of the optimal pairing method using the
minimization of normalized distances between the current
and previous measurements – MUNKRES [1], [2], [7]. This
way obtained pairs are subjected to Kalman type filtering [1],
[2]. So obtained results are compared with AIS data [1], [11]
in case of real system operation, or with the synthetic data in
case of system simulation.
3. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
The system which is briefly described here, as
components has all elements of an intelligent system with
automated tracking of small objects with architectural design
as shown on Figure 2. It is implemented in the systems of
coastal surveillance and operating in two countries.
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