Decision fusion algorithm for target tracking in forward looking infrared imagery

In this paper, we propose a novel decision fusion algorithm for target tracking in forward looking infrared (FLIR) image sequences recorded from an airborne platform. The algorithm allows the fusion of complementary ego-motion compensation and tracking algorithms. We identified three modes that contribute to the failure of the tracking system: (1) the sensor ego-motion failure mode, which causes the movement of the target more than the operational limits of the tracking stage; (2) the tracking failure mode, which occurs when the tracking algorithm fails to determine the correct location of the target in the new frame; (3) the distortion of the reference image failure mode, which happens when the reference image accumulates walk-off error, specially when the target is changing in size, shape or orientation from frame to frame. The proposed algorithm prevents these failure modes from developing unrecoverable tracking failures. The overall performance of the algorithm is guaranteed to be much better than any individual tracking algorithm used in the fusion. The experiments performed on the AMCOM FLIR data set verify the robustness of the algorithm.