Perceptual Reasoning Managed Situation Assessment for Harbour Protection

Abstract

A central problem in Harbour Protection situation assessment is the rapid acquisition and interpretation of information from multiple potentially disparate sources. A perceptual reasoning system paradigm framework is presented as a candidate toward the solution of the problem. The perceptual reasoning system is shown to be a natural governing mechanism for adaptive interacting control of information fusion, the use and update of prior knowledge bases, the generation of anticipation/prediction hypotheses, reinforcement learning and the timely management of uncertainty in situation assessment. The constructs and interaction among elements of the perceptual reasoning system are described. A conceptual data fusion/situation assessment system architecture based on the perceptual reasoning system paradigm is illustrated for harbour protection situation awareness using information from distributed C4ISR and local sensor systems, contextual, a priori and anticipatory information for enhanced target detection, localization, tracking and identification. Concepts are discussed for applying the candidate system to facets of the harbour protection problem as a means to enhance timely maritime domain awareness.