2025_programme: Clutter Reduction in Active Sonar Using a Clustering Method

• Day: June 19, Thursday
    Location / Time: TBA at 15:30 - 16:30
• Last minutes changes: -
• Session: Poster session
  Organiser(s): N/A
  Chairperson(s): N/A
• Lecture: Clutter Reduction in Active Sonar Using a Clustering Method
  Paper ID: 2331
  Author(s): MyoungJun Cheong, Juho Kim, Hyeon-Deok Cho
  Presenter: Myoung Jun Cheong
  Abstract: In shallow-water environments, active sonar pulses are repeatedly reflected off the seabed and sea surface as they travel to the target. This generates heavy clutter and multiple measurements from a single target, making it challenging to design algorithms that effectively remove clutter while preserving target measurements for tracking. Previous methods, such as the Hough Transform-based track initialization method, have been proposed to mitigate heavy clutter. However, these approaches rely on the assumption that targets follow constant-course maneuvers as a distinguishing factor between targets and clutter, limiting their effectiveness in scenarios involving random target maneuvers.\n\nIn this paper, we propose a novel clutter reduction method to address heavy clutter in shallow-water multipath detection environments. The proposed algorithm employs a hierarchical clustering method to group active sonar detection measurements. Unlike previous techniques, our method is more robust to target movement and remains effective in multipath environments where multiple measurements from a single target coexist with high-density clutter. The method considers the spatial and temporal consistency of accumulated measurements to distinguish between targets and clutter. It applies hierarchical clustering to segment measurements into multiple clusters, followed by a cluster classifier to differentiate target clusters from clutter clusters.\n\nThe performance of the proposed clutter reduction method is evaluated using sea trial data collected near Jeju Island, South Korea, with an Active Towed Array Sonar system deployed from RV Cheonghae.
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• Corresponding author: Dr Myoung Jun Cheong
  Affiliation: Agency for Defense Development
  Country: Korea, Republic of