A design of high performance infrared search and track system using dual band 1-D sensors

Abstract

In the maritime environment, the main goals of an infrared search and track system is to search and track the targets approaching to ships, such as sea skimming missiles, small ships, and aircrafts. In this paper, we propose a high performance infrared search and track system. Our proposed infrared search and track system is composed of a dual band infrared detection module, signal processing module, servo control module, and control console module. In the dual band infrared detection module, the sensor head of our proposed system is organized by one-dimensional MWIR and LWIR detectors (480X6) with 3-axes servo stabilization. The signal-processing module consists of several blocks such as a target detection block, target tracking block, panoramic video displaying block, video input/output block, and system control block. Those blocks perform the signal-processing algorithms involved with target search and tracking. In our proposed system, adaptive temporal and spatial filtering methods, which can reduce background clutters effectively, are used for target detection. Moreover, the extended Kalman filter and the integrated probabilistic data association (IPDA) algorithm are adapted for target tracking. Therefore, our proposed infrared search and track system can increase the defense ability of warships due to long range and high accuracy of target detection and tracking.