Patent Document ID: 9869752
Application ID: 15495536
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for autonomous joint detection-classification and tracking of targets of interest, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of acoustic signals from two or more hydrophone sensors, each of the respective acoustic signals characterized by time-series data; detecting a target of interest from the received acoustic signals by: transforming the received acoustic signals from the time domain to the frequency domain; generating a relative-bearing beam response for each of the transformed signals in one or more beam steering directions; estimating the median background noise level of the relative-bearing beam response in each of the one or more beam steering directions and normalizing the spectral response of the relative-bearing beam response by the estimated background noise level, wherein a normalized spectral response is produced that is associated with each relative-bearing beam response; performing a joint detection-classification operation, wherein the joint detection-classification operation comprises a selective frequency integration of the normalized spectral response associated with each relative-bearing beam response, wherein the frequency integration is informed by the detailed physics of the underlying classifier for the target of interest to satisfy a spatial and spectral target hypothesis of the classifier; computing a detection surface in bearing and time based on the frequency integration of the joint detection-classification operation; and determining a decision surface in bearing and time by calculating a constant-false-alarm-rate (CFAR) detection threshold from the estimated noise background level and applying the constant-false-alarm-rate detection threshold to the detection surface; generating a target rack corresponding to the decision surface by: associating decision surface threshold exceedances to produce a relative-bearing track as a function of bearing and time; calculating a true bearing track corresponding to each of the relative-bearing tracks by reconciling the relative-bearing tracks with an estimate of hydrophone sensor array orientation; and transforming the acoustic signals from the frequency domain to the time domain using the relative-bearing track to generate the target track; generating a summary report of spectral data associated with each target track; and outputting a compressed data report identifying the characteristics of the generated target track included in the generated summary report.