COMPUTER VISION, GRAPHICS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING 41, 387 (1988 AUTHOR INDEX FOR VOLUME 41 B BEZDEK, JAMES C., 210 BHANU, BIR, 306 BHASKAR, SK, 323 BOHNER, M., 107 BURGER, WILHELM, 306 CAI, ZUGUANG, 101 CHEN, LING-HWEI, 1 CHEN, YC, 233 CHIN, ROLAND T., 346 CHlou, ER-WOON, 210 EICHMANN, G., 267 F FORSHAW, MRB, 172 GAMBOTTO, J.-P., 107 GARN, LE, 107 GRINAKER, S., 107 GRIswoLD, NC, 153 H HEDEGAARD, C., 107 HRTAs, A., 131 HUNG, YUBIN, 293 K KAMADA, ToMIHIsA, 43 KANATANI, KEN-ICHL 28 KASPARIs, T., 267 KAWAI, SATORU, 43 KIM, JAE-KYGON, 114 KIM, SEONGDAE, 114 KNECHT, JA, 107 L LEE, JEONG-HWAN, 114 LLOYD, DE, 107 MEYER, GARY W., 57 N NEVATIA, R,, 131 0 O'GoRMAN, LAWRENCE, 229 O'LEARY, DIANNE P., 333 ORNELAS, JOHN, JR., 293 387 R ROSENFELD, AZRIEL, 293, 323 SAHOO, PK, 233 SIGNY …

Many types of sensors may be used to gather information on the surrounding environment. It may be noted that different sensors possess distinct characteristics, are designed based on differing physical principles, operate in a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum, and are geared toward a variety of applications. A single sensor operating alone provides a limited sensing range, and is inherently unreliable due to operational errors. However, a synergistic operation of many sensors provides a rich body of information on the sensed environment from a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this paper, we present a brief survey of the techniques/systems for sensor data fusion. We first address sensor data fusion in mobile robotics applications. Since mobile robots operate in an uncertain and constantly changing environment, a steady stream of rich and reliable information on the environment is needed for navigation and path planning. We discuss the feasibility of a few sensors in such applications and present several sensor data fusion techniques for road following and terrain analysis. Next, we review techniques for fusing data from visual, thermal, tactile, and structured-lighting sensors and discuss several general frameworks for sensor data fusion.

Several years ago, a NATO research study group specified a tape format for the interchange of image data and computer source programs within a cooperative project in image processing. This tape format was later published in the open literature and, since then, has been extensively used by several individuals and organizations. The present paper describes the first revision of the format. Among the new features added to the original format are simplified recording to image sequences, increased record length, new data type, and new tape density.