Fusion in Signal Processing - Information Fusion in Signal and Image Processing - page 30

interacting

co use coordinator adapting

competition

fusion opportunistic planned

numerical topological symbolic

sensory
syntactic
statistical
structural

of access
of abilities

centralized
decentralized

coupling a priori

cognitive
a posteriori

coadaptation

optimization

Figure 2.6. Taxonomy of the different interaction mechanisms

In any case, it is necessary to be able to refer to “degraded” modes, in the sense that
when there is a strong uncertainty in the choice of the current behavior and supervision
operates by switching modes, this uncertainty can lead to an operational malfunction.
In order to remain robust towards this type of uncertainty, the use of degraded modes
that include the behaviors of more accurate and “refined” modes makes it possible
to manage the amount of uncertainty that exists at a given time regarding behavioral
knowledge.

2.3.2. Quality of the information

In the field of military intelligence, the STANAG 2022 gives us a precise definition
of the variable that allows us to qualify information. The first parameter is related to
the quality of the source. The available information is essentially symbolic since it
is obtained either directly from human sources, or from an analysis of sensor signals
performed by a human operator. As a result, the quality of a source is only relative
and somewhat subjective. This quality can be expressed on an alphabetical scale from
A when the source is completely reliable, to D when a source is not very reliable or
not at all; the letter E indicates that the reliability cannot be estimated. In a context
of essentially numerical information, this same quality can be assessed but this time
using a numerical coefficient that can be in the form of a probability, a possibility
or a Dempster-Shafer mass. This coefficient will be calculated based on the context,
which can be provided by weather conditions, the possibility of jamming or decoys,
or also by the sensor's operating conditions. This coefficient will be included naturally
in the fusion algorithms, in order to favor a source over another if the former has more
favorable operating conditions [NIM 02].

A second parameter that can be used to assess the quality of information is given
by the credibility of that information. In the field of intelligence, this credibility is
provided by a numerical scale from 1, for information confirmed by other sources, to