Finding the Enemy: Using 3-D Laser Radar (LADAR) Imaging for Real Time Combat Identification of Ground Targets in an Obscured Environment

Laser Radar LADAR offers advantages over traditional surveillance technologies such as Synthetic Aperture Radar SAR and Electro-OpticalInfrared EOIR sensors. LADAR provides very high resolution, can produce 3-D images, is all-weather capable, and can detect obscured ground targets. These advantages make LADAR an attractive alternative to SAR and EOIR. The high resolution and ability to produce 3-D images that LADAR provides also have the potential of supporting real-time target identification using Automatic Target Recognition ATR algorithms to match LADAR images with preloaded templates of potential targets. This paper addresses the broad problem of identifying ground targets in real-time to enable capture or targeting. Specifically, this paper focuses on the following research question How can LADAR be used to identify ground targets real-time in an obscured environment