ARACHYDE: a sensor-to-situation assessment software architecture for passive acoustic signal understanding

In antisubmarine warfare (ASW) acoustic signal processing, of sonar signals, four main tasks must be achieved: detection, localization, classification and interpretation. The authors focus on how a hybrid software technology (signal processing+neural networks+knowledge-based systems) can help to achieve the interpretation task and its related reaction to detection and classification. A SUN4-based prototype called ARACHYDE has been designed to test this approach on actual acoustic situation analysis. Its goal is to establish an online acoustic situation assessment. An application to the sounds recorded in a quiet office is described