Multi-Sensor Systems: Multiplicity Helps

Today many tracking and surveillance systems show multi sensor configurations, which are used to enhance the breadth of measurement and likewise to increase the capability of the system to survive if any individual sensor fails. Currently, multi sensor systems rely on a central processor where global data fusion takes place, or a central communication medium through which all messages between sensors must be transferred. Such centralized architectures give rise to problems with communication and computational bottlenecks and are susceptible to total system failure if the central facility should fail. Beside the high reliability of a distributed multi sensor system it enables a new possibilities of signal processing for enhancing target detection. The objective of this article is to introduce multi sensor surveillance systems to understand the basics of these networks, to stimulate new concepts, theories, and applications in this area, and to give a background to the following lectures in the NATO SET-157 Lecture Series Multisensor Fusion Advanced Methodologies and Applications. The starting point for introducing multi sensor systems is given by looking closer into distributed radar network consisting of several transmitters and receiver units spread over an area.