Multi-source information fusion: Progress and future

Multi-Source Information Fusion (MSIF), as a comprehensive interdisciplinary field based on modern information technology, has gained significant research value and extensive application prospects in various domains, attracting high attention and interest from scholars, engineering experts, and practitioners worldwide. Despite achieving fruitful results in both theoretical and applied aspects over the past five decades, there remains a lack of comprehensive and systematic review articles that provide an overview of recent development in MSIF. In light of this, this paper aims to assist researchers and individuals interested in gaining a quick understanding of the relevant theoretical techniques and development trends in MSIF, which conducts a statistical analysis of academic reports and related application achievements in the field of MSIF over the past two decades, and provides a brief overview of the relevant theories, methodologies, and application domains, as well as key issues and challenges currently faced. Finally, an analysis and outlook on the future development directions of MSIF are presented.