Multisource Information Fusion:Key Issues,Research Progress and New Trends

In recent years,a new research boom of multisource information fusion technologies has been set off both in China and abroad.This paper proposed a comprehensive review of the information fusion state of the art.Firstly,the paper explored the conceptualizations and essence of information fusion,then comprehensively reviewed the issues and challenges involved in information fusion from the perspectives of both information processing requirements and fusion system's design considerations,as well as the existing major fusion models and approaches,at the same time especially analyzed the future trends of the research on information fusion methodologies,including some relatively new areas.Next,wide ranges of information fusion applications were surveyed and some emerging application areas were specially discussed.At last,the summary and outlook of information fusion research routes were presented.