A Sequential Approach to Target Discrimination

The Wald sequential probability ratio test is applied to the discrimination of targets observed by a radar or other sensor and a form for the classifier involving linear predictive filtering is developed. In this sequential approach, a target is illuminated with consecutive pulses until a classification of the target can be made to within a prescribed probability of error. Because of the linear-predictive formulation, the computational and storage requirements for the classifier are related only to the number of returns necessary to predict the target signature and not to the length of signature observed; a classifier with modest storage and computational requirements can be employed to process signatures consisting of an arbitrarily large number of returns. The classifier is based on some well-known results in mean-square filtering theory and has a simple intuitive interpretation. The classifier structure can also be related to autoregressive time series analysis and innovations process concepts and has an interpretation in the frequency domain in terms of the maximum entropy and maximum likelihood spectral estimates for the target signatures.