Data fusion to improve trajectory tracking in a Cooperative Surveillance Multi-Agent Architecture
In this paper we present a Cooperative Surveillance Multi-Agent System (CS-MAS) architecture extended to incorporate dynamic coalition formation. We illustrate specific coalition formation using fusion skills. In this case, the fusion process is divided into two layers: (i) a global layer in the fusion center, which initializes the coalitions and (ii) a local layer within coalitions, where a local fusion agent is dynamically instantiated. There are several types of autonomous agent: surveillance-sensor agents, a fusion center agent, a local fusion agent, interface agents, record agents, planning agents, etc. Autonomous agents differ in their ability to carry out a specific surveillance task. A surveillance-sensor agent controls and manages individual sensors (usually video cameras). It has different capabilities depending on its functional complexity and limitations related to sensor-specific aspects. In the work presented here we add a new autonomous agent, called the local fusion agent, to the CS-MAS architecture, addressing specific problems of on-line sensor alignment, registration, bias removal and data fusion. The local fusion agent is dynamically created by the fusion center agent and involves several surveillance-sensor agents working in a coalition. We show how the inclusion of this new dynamic local fusion agent guarantees that, in a video-surveillance system, objects of interest are successfully tracked across the whole area, assuring continuity and seamless transitions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
data fusion software agents coordination sensor network architecture distributed vision surveillance application