A new multiple decisions fusion rule for targets detection in multiple sensors distributed detection systems with data fusion

• Targets detection in distributed multiple sensor detection systems is considered.
• A new multiple decisions fusion rule is proposed.
• The proposed fusion rule is insensitive to instabilities of the sensor probability distributions.
• The proposed fusion rule outperforms the optimum hard detection and multiple thresholds detection systems.
• The proposed fusion rule is extended to the case of known probability density functions.

Currently, multiple sensors distributed detection systems with data fusion are used extensively in both civilian and military applications. The optimality of most detection fusion rules implemented in these systems relies on the knowledge of probability distributions for all distributed sensors. The overall detection performance of the central processor is often worse than expected due to instabilities of the sensors probability density functions. This paper proposes a new multiple decisions fusion rule for targets detection in distributed multiple sensor systems with data fusion. Unlike the published studies, in which the overall decision is based on single binary decision from each individual sensor and requires the knowledge of the sensors probability distributions, the proposed fusion method derives the overall decision based on multiple decisions from each individual sensor assuming that the probability distributions are not known. Therefore, the proposed fusion rule is insensitive to instabilities of the sensors probability distributions. The proposed multiple decisions fusion rule is derived and its overall performance is evaluated. Comparisons with the performance of single sensor, optimum hard detection, optimum centralized detection, and a multiple thresholds decision fusion, are also provided. The results show that the proposed multiple decisions fusion rule has higher performance than the optimum hard detection and the multiple thresholds detection systems. Thus it reduces the loss in performance between the optimum centralized detection and the optimum hard detection systems. Extension of the proposed method to the case of target detection when some probability density functions are known and applications to binary communication systems are also addressed.