1Multitarget/Multisensor Tracking using only Range and Doppler Measurements

A new approach is described for combining range and Doppler data from multiple radar platforms to perform multi-target detection and tracking. In particular, azimuthal measurements are assumed to be either coarse or unavailable, so that multiple sensors are required to triangulate target tracks using range and Doppler measurements only. Increasing the number of sensors can cause data association by conventional means to become impractical due to combinatorial complexity, i.e., an exponential increase in the number of target to signature mappings. When the azimuthal resolution is coarse, this problem will be exacerbated by the resulting overlap between signatures from multiple targets and clutter. In the new approach the data association is performed probabilistically, using a variation of expectation-maximization. Combinatorial complexity is avoided by performing an efficient optimization in the space of all target tracks and mappings between tracks and data. The full, multi-sensor, version of the algorithm is tested on synthetic data. The results demonstrate that accurate tracks can be estimated by exploiting spatial diversity in the sensor locations. Also, as a proof-of-concept, a simplified, single-sensor, range-only, version of the algorithm is tested on experimental radar data acquired with a stretch radar receiver. These results are promising, and demonstrate a surprising degree of robustness in the presence of nonhomogeneous clutter