Multi-Camera Persistent Surveillance Test Bed

Abstract : Recognizing the U.S. military's superiority in open battlefield environments adversaries have moved the battle into cities generating a different set of technical challenges for the modern warfighter. Combat in urban environments characterized by large civilian populations and high building densities requires a different tactical approach to ground operations. Radical new solutions are required to reduce the number of dangerous situations our Soldiers encounter by providing them with improved situational awareness. Small reconnaissance surveillance and target acquisition (RSTA) platforms have the ability to cooperate through information sharing to increase the situational awareness over a region of interest (RSTA). One RSTA task that can be performed by such platforms is persistent surveillance - the ability to monitor objects of interest without interruption over a large ROI. This paper discusses the design and implementation of a persistent surveillance test bed comprised of a homogenous group of stationary assets. Further it examines persistent surveillance algorithms that can be reduced to practice and their proposed implementation and evaluation within the test bed.