Toward aircraft recognition with convolutional neural networks

We summarize the history and state of the art in Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), which constitute a significant advancement in pattern recognition. As a demonstration of capability, we address the problem of automatic aircraft identification during refueling approach. In this paper we describe the history of CNN development and provide a high level overview of the state of the art and a summary of leading CNN libraries with CUDA support. Finally, we demonstrate an application of CNN technology to autonomous aerial refueling and identify areas of follow-on research.