Optimal Sensor Configurations for Rectangular Target Dectection
Provides a theoretically optimal and robust search strategy for rectangular target detection, relevant to search and detection missions.
The paper derives optimal sensor configurations for detecting rectangular targets with unknown orientation, showing that evenly spaced angles on a half-circle minimize the probability of missed detection. No prior knowledge of target orientation is needed, making the strategy robust.
Optimal search strategies where targets are observed at several different angles are found. Targets are assumed to exhibit rectangular symmetry and have a uniformly-distributed orientation. By rectangular symmetry, it is meant that one side of a target is the mirror image of its opposite side. Finding an optimal solution is generally a hard problem. Fortunately, symmetry principles allow analytical and intuitive solutions to be found. One such optimal search strategy consists of choosing n angles evenly separated on the half-circle and leads to a lower bound of the probability of not detecting targets. As no prior knowledge of the target orientation is required, such search strategies are also robust, a desirable feature in search and detection missions.