IN THE SPOTLIGHT:   JINSONG ZHANG

At ARC we get excited when one of our own secures a large project contract. But when a staff member receives signed approval for two major contracts within weeks of each other, we really take notice!

Dr. Jinsong Zhang, ARC Research Scientist, recently was awarded $600,000 in new grants / contracts for two projects. The first project is titled “Development of Threat Assessment Module for Theater Missile Defense Using Belief Theory and Cognitive Engineering Approach.” This project will focus on developing new methods of information processing for the DoD Missile Defense Agency’s threat level classification system.

Threat assessment is one of the most important functions in battlefield situation responsiveness. This is especially true for U.S. theater missile defenses. In these situations, defense resources are limited and often a very short response time is available for defensive maneuver decisions.

Through this project, ARC proposes to categorize the rules used by current threat assessment personnel and formulate them into a computerized intelligence system. This intelligence system would theoretically process incomplete and ambiguous information from multiple sources, similar to battlefield situations with reports coming from various surveillance systems, and then present the combined information in a proper manner to the operator making these split-second classification decisions. Without such a program a classification operator could quickly get lost in the amount of information being inappropriately presented, which could lead to dangerous and incorrect assumptions about potential threats and / or a loss of priceless response time.

This new module will use Cognitive Engineering capabilities to determine the best, most reliable, way for human / machine interaction. This new, interface proposes to bridge the gap in current information systems, allow the operator to change the parameters of the computers information processing system, and allow more accuracy in threat level assessment. Dr. Zhang will work as the Principal Investigator for this project, together with collaborator Dr. David Roelant, ARC Senior Researcher.

The second project recently awarded to Dr. Zhang, titled “Development of Self Organization Algorithms for Unattended Acoustic Sensor Networks for Target Classification and Tracking,” will study and improve upon current acoustic sensor arrays used in the military field. This project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office for $300,000 over the next three years.

Currently the U.S. Army uses acoustic sensor array systems to track the location of targets. These arrays, constructed of clusters of microphone nodes attached to a rigid circular or square framework, are often quite large. Due to the bulk of such systems, sensor arrays are not convenient for deployment in the battlefield as currently designed. However, their use is important as these nodes have the capability of sensing, processing and communicating the acoustic signal from crossing enemy targets. In fact, their capability for using sound to target specific enemy vehicles, like tanks, is crucial to U.S. defenses in establishing location and movement.

ARC will be developing a new ad hoc sensor network which would allow military forces to deploy hundreds of loose sensor nodes in a random configuration. This configuration would then self-organize into local systems, similar to the current circular or square arrays, to allow for target tracking. This innovation would be more conducive to the battlefield and allow for quicker release, use, and data acquisition. In extremely hostile situations, it is impossible for Commanders to issue orders for sensor node organization, but these new randomly deployed arrays would have the ability to self-organize and send intelligence back on their own.

ARC will research the communications structure between nodes, self-organizing sensor selection criteria, and the type of sensors that should be selected to achieve optimal target tracking and classification performance.

These new theoretical self-organizing sensor networks could have civil applications as well, including security zone and perimeter protection.

ARC will build a small scale test bed to prove the viability of such an application on the battlefield and in civil usage. This research will also work to prove that these units properly self-organize and do not require man-made prompts or commands.

For this project, Dr. David Roelant will act as the Principle Investigator; Dr. Jinsong Zhang will be the Co-P.I. along with Dr. Chi Zhou from FIU’s IT2 Department.