A Track Before Detect Algorithm for Tracking Extended Targets

For certain types of sensor-target configurations, a point target model or approach is not suitable and the physical extent of the target is accounted for during processing. An extended target track-before-detect (TBD) algorithm is presented and the performance is compared to an algorithm based on the point target assumption. Simulations illustrate the gain in performance obtained by using the extended target model where a particle filter is used for the TBD implementation