Open Set Incremental Learning for Automatic Target Recognition

Incremental learning methods update the existing model with new knowledge when the target data increase continuously. Open set recognition (OSR) algorithms provide classifiers with a rejection option so that the new untrained target type is identified. In this paper, an open set incremental learning method is introduced for automatic target recognition, which is able to recognize and learn the new unknown classes continually. The proposed method, open set model with incremental learning (OSmIL), is an ensemble classifier so it is able to be updated only by the new data. For saving the computational time and storage source, a new exemplar selection method is introduced for model simplifying. Edge samples are selected to cover training classes; as a result, the model size is deduced and controlled. Moreover, because extreme value theory (EVT) is suitable to fit a classification model that includes open space risk, the decision function based on EVT makes an open set classifier for identifying the new classes. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed OSmIL outperforms the other state of the arts on the accuracy of multiclass OSR. And OSmIL can maintain good accuracy and efficiency in the incremental learning experiment set.