IIIT Hyderabad algorithm to improve accuracy of IAF radars

The algorithm can help Indian Air Force enhance its accuracy in object identification by up to 96 per cent from the existing 91 per cent. 

The target scopes of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and its ground-based radars are set to get sharper and detect enemy and friendly aircraft more accurately, courtesy an algorithm developed by the International Institute for Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad for Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). 

The algorithm and software, which has been transitioned to BEL and is currently being tested out in their simulation environment, when integrated with the existing Air Force tracking system during research, was found to be improving accuracy in object identification by radars up to 96 per cent from the existing 91 per cent. 

Flying objects in the Indian airspace are detected and tracked by ground-based radars produced by BEL. The IAF’s current tracking system relies on a multi-sensor tracking mechanism via radars that are located at various parts of the country. Information such as location and velocity coordinates captured by each radar is collated to provide what is known as the Air Situation Picture (ASP), a detailed listing of all aircraft in the airspace along with their corresponding flight numbers and flight plans. 

However, with overlapping radars sensing sometimes the same aircraft, and delay in communication between sensors, two common errors emerge – the ‘merging’ error, where multiple aircraft in close proximity are incorrectly identified as one; and ‘splitting’, where a single aircraft is sensed as multiple and erroneously flagged as a threat. Thus, the ASP generated is not always accurate. 

To address these issues, a team from BEL Ghaziabad approached IIIT Hyderabad and has been involved in multiple discussions for development of an automated solution. With 11 days of anonymised and tagged data collected from 17 million data points captured by multiple radars, the IIIT Hyderabad built a machine learning model. 

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