Abstract :
The analogy between the visual brain and radar has fueled Professor Simon Haykin´s interest in studying the human brain for the past 25 years. He will address the formulation of the perceptionaction cycle that embodies five basic properties: Perception, Memory, Attention, Intelligence, and Language. Realizing that the language in radar information processing is different from that in the brain, it is natural to demand the first four properties of human cognition for a radar system to be cognitive. To satisfy this requirement, a hierarchical cognitive radar will be described that exploits local and global feedback loops around the receiver and transmitter, which are supplied with three distinct memory units: perceptual memory, executive memory, and action-perception matching memory. In so doing, the whole system is coordinated with its environment in a powerful way. Through the use of clever learning procedures, a hierarchical perception-action cycle is built. The stage is now set to present experimental results, which demonstrate how the tracking resolution capability of a radar system is progressively improved as the memory units in the system are added, one by one. Future research challenges include: • Improvements to the cubature Kalman filter in the receiver for perception of the environment. • Approximate dynamic programming in the transmitter for action to control the environment. • Bayesian target detection. • Multiple target surveillance. • Cognitive phased array radar, providing the ultimate in performance.
