Classification using a Radial Basis Function Neural Network on Side-Scan Sonar Data

Detecting and classifying mines among natural formations and man-made debris along the sea floor can be a tedious task. To reduce operator dependency, an automated computer aided detection and classification system is needed. Our proposed automated system uses a two-step process. First the images are normalized and then a supervised learning method, radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), is applied to a side-scan sonar (SSS) data set. This method is able to extrapolate beyond the training data and successfully classify mine-like objects (MLOs).