Publication Date

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Committee Members

Brian Rigling (Committee Member), Michael Saville (Committee Member), Arnab Shaw (Advisor)

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Abstract

The application of Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) on High Range Resolution (HRR) radar data in a scenario that contains unknown targets is of great interest for military and civilian applications. HRR radar data provides greater resolution of a target as well as the ability to perform ATR on a moving target, which gives it an advantage over other imaging systems. With the added resolution of HRR comes the disadvantage that a change in the aspect angle or orientation results in greater changes in the collected data, making classical ATR more difficult. Closed set ATR on HRR radar data is defined when all potential targets are assumed to be part of the training target data base. Closed set ATR has been able to achieve higher rates of correct classification by the selection of proper feature extraction algorithms, however, only a few methods for performing open set ATR have been developed. Open set ATR is the ability to identify and discard when a target is not one of the trained targets. By identifying these untrained targets, the number of misclassified targets is reduced, thereby, increasing the probability of a correct classification in a realistic setting. While the open set ATR produces a more realistic approach, the classical closed-set ATR is the standard method of ATR. One of the more popular classification algorithms currently used today is the Support Vector Machine (SVM). The SVM by nature only works on a binary closed-set problem. However, by extracting probabilities from an SVM as proposed by Platt [1], this classification algorithm can be applied to open set. In this thesis, the feature extraction methods established in closed-set ATR are modified to facilitate the application of the Probabilistic Open Set Support Vector Machine (POS-SVM). Utilizing the Eigen Template (ET) and Mean Template (MT) feature extraction methods developed for closed-set ATR, in combination with centroid alignment, an open set ATR Probability of correct classification (PCC) rate of 80% has been achieved. Utilizing POS-SVM, it is possible to successfully perform open set ATR on HRR data with a high PCC.

Page Count

110

Department or Program

Department of Electrical Engineering

Year Degree Awarded

2016


Share

COinS