Variations of Joint Integrated Data Association With Radar and Target-Provided Measurements

Abstract

Target tracking algorithms are usually based on exteroceptive measurements obtained from sensors placed in the center of some surveillance area. However, information transmitted from surrounding targets will often also be available. This information, here dubbed target-provided measurements, will often include valuable information for a tracking system. We present a multitarget tracking algorithm utilizing such measurements using a framework of joint integrated data association. The use case we consider is maritime target tracking using radar measurements combined with messages from the automatic identification system. The full details of the tracking algorithm are presented, including implementation-specific considerations to account for the different natures of the incoming measurements.We detail three different methods of handling the target-provided measurements: one processing them as they arrive, i.e., sequentially, and the others collecting and processing them at fixed intervals. The results show that all three improve over the pure radar tracking algorithm and similar state-of-the-art methods.