A Tracker Assessment Tool for Comparing Tracker Performance

This technical report describes a method for assessing the performance of auto-matic tracking systems against various metrics. These metrics are grouped in the categories of track establishment, track maintenance, track error and false tracks. A desired performance level is defined for each metric, and the prob-ability that a particular track will meet this performance level is empirically approximated from archived sensor data. The individual metric probabilities are combined using a weighted average to produce an overall tracker rating. An important feature of the approach is that absolute truth is assumed to be unavailable, and output of the trackers under test is instead compared with incomplete truth. The incomplete truth is produced by a manual inspection of the data and through editing the output of the best available tracking algo-rithm. This report also discusses an implementation of the assessment method for Over-the-Horizon Radar. This software package is referred to as the Tracker Assessment Tool, and is used to compare four alternative tracking algorithms. APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEAS