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gathering more accurate information to test the hypotheses
left undecided in (ii), and (iv) off-line conclusive image
understanding. The simplified block diagram of the ARTS-IP
system concept is shown in Fig. 1.
The main features of this project are: (a) interdiscipli-
narity, (b) advanced technological concepts, (c) civilian ap-
plications, (d) practical system validation, and (e) advances
over known SAR techniques. In detail, point (a) is fulfilled
in the cooperation with existing Esprit projects and other
CEC supported research (e.g. Earth Observation Programme by
European Space Agency). In particular the dual look system
approach is a quite new system concept of highly interdisci-
plinary value. As a matter of fact, the rough image provided
by the first "quick and dirty" acquisition drives the second
more accurate look in a limited region of interest. The con-
cept of "image driven processing", can be valuable for other
applications in addition to SAR. Point (b) implies, on the one
hand, non Von Neumann architectures, and, on the other hand,
stringent real-time constraints requiring very high speed in-
tegrated circuits. As far as point (c) is concerned, applica-
tions such as sea traffic and pollution control, land use,
forestry, agricultural disease control and geological and
geophysical studies are envisioned. In order to provide valid
technological fallout, notwithstanding the limited amount of
manpower involved in this project, it is foreseen to develop
part of the project (point (d)) to an actual prototype and
other parts through simulation. This will allow to validate
the results through an application. Concerning point (e),
another objective of the research is to overcome the limita-
tions suffered by today's SAR systems, namely: limited proces-
sing speed, limited flexibility, lack of three-dimensional
vision.
3. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
From a practical point of view the work has been subdivi-
ded into eight main "tasks" as follows: (Tl) specification
study, (T2) acquisition system architecture (st look), (T3)
image processing (on-line), (T4) validation and applications,
(T5) second look architecture, (T6) KBS understanding, (T7)
simulation of radar images, and (T8) final experiment. The
subdivision in Tasks parallels the basic structure Of: the ^sy-
stem under investigation. In particular, the ‘tasks T2,- T3, T5
and T6 follow the conceptual scheme of Fig. 1. The identifica-
tion of the application areas best suited to prove and valida-
te real time and adaptive feature capabilities of ARTS-IP
is pursued in task T4. In addition to live SAR ‘data, it ‘is
foreseen to develop tools for simulation of radar images (T7)
to support the development, testing and ‘validation’ of the
other tasks. It is noted that, in addition to the partial ex-
periments to validate the homologous tasks, a final experiment
(T8) will be carried out to validate the system and to prove
some parts of the critical technologies.
At the end of 1985, the specification study has been awar-
ded to ARTS-IP group by CEC for approximately 150 man/month of
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