cedures on the basis of a simple knowledge based system (SKBS)
having a limited data base of events of interest to be put On-
board. It is not required at this stage to perform the detec-
tion/recognition of areas of interest with very low probabili-
ty of false alarm/high accuracy and resolution, but rather
with high detection probability and limited resolution, final
verification being made only by the second look. Full fledged
interpretation and understanding of remote sensing data of
interest is being investigated for ground-based processing
centres, where the required memory and processing resources
needed for a complete IKBS (sometimes referred to as integra-
ted geographical information system) can be made readily avai-
lable.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 frames ARTS-IP
in the Esprit initiative, Section 3 describes the organiza-
tion of the research activities, the workplan and time sche-
dule. Section 4 illustrates the rationale of the system toge-
ther with the different options to be explored. The results
expected from the study and the future activities are covered
in Section 5.
2. THE RESEARCH PROGRAMME IN THE ESPRIT FRAMEWORK
The Commission of the European Communities (CEC) in the
frame of the European Strategic Programme for Research and
Development in Information Technology (Esprit), issued in 1985
an invitation to submit proposals for R & D in information
technology.
The Esprit programme has been established by the Community
with the aim of enhancing the technological base of the Euro-
pean industry, to reach parity at world level. To be funded
by Esprit R & D projects must be cooperative and precompetiti-
ve and should be aimed at areas where market opportunities are
expected to be ripe within 5 to 10 years; therefore the pro-
gramme is located between long term basic research and applied
industrial R & D work, satisfying specific short term needs
and priorities.
In a cooperative effort, five European electronic firms:
Selenia (I - prime contractor), Marconi Research Centre (UK),
Dornier System GmbH (FRG), Thomson-CSF (F), and Hunting Tech-
nical Services Ltd (UK), as well as three European research
institutes: Politecnico di Milano (I), Polytechnic of Central
London (UK), and Ecole Superieure d'Ingenieurs en Electrotech-
nique et Electronique (ESIEE-F) have submitted a proposal for
a five year project involving 150 man/year for R & D. Main
theme of the research is to design and experiment innovative
algorithms and computer architectures for real-time image pro-
cessing characterized by adaptivity, flexibility, data-depen-
dent rearrangeability and multi-dimensionality. A challenging
test bed for the study has been recognized to be a Synthetic
Aperture Radar (SAR) for remote sensing of the earth, able to
accomplish the following steps: (i) first look acquisition,
(ii) on-line image analysis and request for further data, (iii)
second look, image driven, processing with the purpose of
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