Continuous 2-D assignment for multitarget tracking with rotating radars

Modern surveillance systems often utilize multiple physically distributed sensors of different types to provide complementary and overlapping coverage on targets. In order to generate target tracks and estimates, the sensor data need to be fused. While a centralized processing approach is theoretically optimal, there are significant advantages in distributing the fusion operations over multiple processing nodes. This paper discusses architectures for distributed fusion, whereby each node processes the data from its own set of sensors and communicates with other nodes to improve on the estimates, The information graph is introduced as a way of modeling information flow in distributed fusion systems and for developing algorithms. Fusion for target tracking involves two main operations: estimation and association. Distributed estimation algorithms based on the information graph are presented for arbitrary fusion architectures and related to linear and nonlinear distributed estimation results. The distributed data association problem is discussed in terms of track-to-track association likelihoods. Distributed versions of two popular tracking approaches (joint probabilistic data association and multiple hypothesis tracking) are then presented, and examples of applications are given.

The crucial problem in multiple target tracking is the hit-to-track data association. A hit is a received signal from a target or background clutter which provides positional information. If an incorrect hit is associated with a track, that track could diverge and prematurely terminate or cause other tracks to also diverge. Most methods for hit-to-track data association fall into two categories: Multiple Hypothesis Tracking (MHT) and Joint Probabilistic Data Association (JPDA). Versions of MHT use all or some reasonable hits to update a track and delay the decision on which hit was correct. JPDA uses a weighted sum of the reasonable hits to update a track. These weights are the probability that the hit originated from the target in track. The computational load for the joint probabilities increase exponentially as the number of targets increases and therefore, is not an attractive algorithm when expecting to track many targets. This paper reviews the JPDA filter and two simple approximations of the joint probabilities which increase linearly in computational load as the number of targets increase. Then a new class of near optimal JPDA algorithms is introduced which run in polynomial time. The power of the polynomial is an input to the algorithm. This algorithm bridges the gap in computational load and accuracy between the very fast simple approximations and the efficient optimal algorithms.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Electronically scanned array radars as well as mechanically steered rotating antennas return measurements with different time stamps during the same scan while sweeping form one region to another. Data association algorithms process the measurements at the end of the scan in order to satisfy the common one measurement per track assumption. Data processing at the end of a full scan resulted in delayed target state update. This issue becomes more apparent while tracking fast moving targets with low scan rate sensors. In this paper, we present new dynamic sector processing algorithm using 2D assignment for continuously scanning radars. A complete scan can be divided into sectors, which could be as small as a single detection, depending on the scanning rate and sparsity of targets. Data association followed by filtering and target state update is done dynamically while sweeping from one end to another. Along with the benefit of immediate track updates, continuous tracking results in challenges such as multiple targets spanning multiple sectors and targets crossing consecutive sectors. Also, associations performed in the current sector may require changes in association done in previous sectors. Such difficulties are resolved by the proposed 2D assignment algorithm that implements an incremental Hungarian assignment technique. The algorithm offers flexibility with respect to assignment variables for fusing of measurements received in consecutive sectors. Furthermore the proposed technique can be extended to multiframe assignment for jointly processing data from multiple scanning radars. Experimental results based on rotating radars are presented.

A single-sensor, single-target mixture reduction (MR) data association algorithm is extended for use in multisensor, multitarget tracking situations. MR is extended for tracking an arbitrary number of targets using an arbitrary number of sensors under the assumption that the sensor measurement errors are independent across sensors. Like the single-sensor, single-target MR algorithm, which gives better performance than the probabilistic data association (PDA) filter, the multisensor, multitarget MR extensions give similar improvements in performance compared to the joint PDA (JPDA) and multisensor JPDA (MSJPDA) algorithms. Further, in the formulations for the multisensor and multitarget MR algorithms, the equations for the calculation of the data association probabilities have been put in the same form as for the JPDA, thus allowing previously developed fast JPDA computational techniques to be applicable. N the problem of tracking targets in random clutter, the optimal Bayesian solution leads to Gaussian mixture distributions that consist of an exponentially increasing number of components.1 In practice, the number of components in each mixture is kept in check by approximating it with fewer components. The nearest neighbor (NN) approximation reduces each target's mixture to its largest component.13 The joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) approximation merges the components of each target's mixture into a single Gaussian component.1'4 However, when there are several significant, well-spaced components in the original mixture, important information may be lost by using the NN or JPDA methods. A more flexible approximation method for single-sensor, single-target tracking, known as mixture reduction (MR), has been proposed by Salmond.5 This MR algorithm preserves the mean and covariance of the original mixture of components, successively merging components until the number of components is reduced to some userspecified limit. In this paper, we first review Salmond's MR algorithm for single-sensor tracking of a single target in clutter. We then derive extensions to Salmond's MR algorithm for use in tracking multiple targets and when there are measurements available from multiple sensors. Just as the single-sensor, single-target MR algorithm gives better performance5 than the probabilistic data association (PDA) filter, the multisensor, multitarget MR extensions are shown to give similar improvements in performance as compared to the JPDA and multisensor JPDA (MSJPDA)6 algorithms. Extension of the MR algorithm for tracking of multiple targets is necessary for use in realistic tracking scenarios where there are usually many targets that need to be tracked. Moreover, many current tracking systems have been designed with multiple sensors, thus requiring the further extension to a multisensor algorithm. The paper is organized as follows. In Sec. II, the target dynamics and measurement equations are defined. We review the singlesensor, single-target MR algorithm5 in Sec. Ill, and we extend the algorithm to the multitarget and multisensor cases in Sec. IV and V, respectively. In Sec. VI, simulation results evaluating the performances of the MR extensions are presented. Finally, concluding remarks are given in Sec. VII.

In this paper we describe a novel data association algorithm, termed m-best S-D, that determines in O(mSkn/sup 3/) time (m assignments, S/spl ges/3 lists of size n, k relaxations) the (approximately) m-best solutions to an S-D assignment problem. The m-best S-D algorithm is applicable to tracking problems where either the sensors are synchronized or the sensors and/or the targets are very slow moving. The significance of this work is that the m-best S-D assignment algorithm (in a sliding window mode) can provide for an efficient implementation of a suboptimal multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) algorithm by obviating the need for a brute force enumeration of an exponential number of joint hypotheses. We first describe the general problem for which the m-best S-D applies. Specifically, given line of sight (LOS) (i.e., incomplete position) measurements from S sensors, sets of complete position measurements are extracted, namely, the 1st, 2nd, ..., mth best (in terms of likelihood) sets of composite measurements are determined by solving a static S-D assignment problem. Utilizing the joint likelihood functions used to determine the m best S-D assignment solutions, the composite measurements are then quantified with a probability of being correct using a JPDA-like (joint probabilistic data association) technique. Lists of composite measurements from successive scans, along with their corresponding probabilities, are used in turn with a state estimator in a dynamic 2-D assignment algorithm to estimate the states of moving targets over time. The dynamic assignment cost coefficients are based on a likelihood function that incorporates the "true" composite measurement probabilities obtained from the (static) m-best S-D assignment solutions. We demonstrate the merits of the m-best S-D algorithm by applying it to a simulated multitarget passive sensor track formation and maintenance problem, consisting of multiple time samples of LOS measurements originating from multiple (S=7) synchronized high frequency direction finding sensors.

The paper considers the problem of tracking multiple maneuvering targets in the presence of clutter using switching multiple target motion models. A novel suboptimal filtering algorithm is developed by applying the basic interacting multiple model (IMM) approach and the joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) technique. Unlike the standard single-scan JPDA approach, the authors exploit a multiscan joint probabilistic data association (mscan-JPDA) approach to solve the data association problem. The algorithm is illustrated via a simulation example involving tracking of four maneuvering targets and a multiscan data window of length two

Multi-target tracking is a difficult task in radar data processing field. To track multiple targets with the video data collected by a X-band surface surveillance radar, a two-level cascade detection algorithm is designed at first. We combine the motion model and appearance model of the targets together for multi-target tracking and propose a multi-target tracking algorithm based on scale adaptive kernelized correlation filter (SAKCF) and Kalman filter (KF) in this paper. Firstly, the extended targets are detected by the designed tow-level cascade detection algorithm and the centroids of the extended targets are extracted by centroid algorithm too. Then, a SAKCF tracker is assigned to each target. KF is utilized to predict the position of each target and each SAKCF tracker searches the region near the predicted position to determine the real position and scale of each target. The association between tracks and trace points is performed based on Hungary algorithm. Finally, the abnormal tracks are deleted. Experimental results based on the radar video data show that compared with the classical simple online real-time target tracking (SORT) algorithm and joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) algorithm, the proposed algorithm improves multi-object tracking precision (MOTP) and multi-object tracking accuracy (MOTA).

When conducting performance assessment of multi-target tracking algorithms with a realistic computer simulation or real-world sensor data, good track-to-truth assignment (TTA) is a critical component of any meaningful assessment. The presence of kinematic data for small objects that may not be observed by the sensor in the truth data poses serious challenges to the TTA. The assignment process is further complicated by the presence of sensor biases. In this paper, TTA in the presence of small objects and sensor biases is considered. When the target density is high and some objects are small, correctly assigning tracks to truth objects is challenging, and with the addition of sensor biases, the problem of correctly assigning tracks to truth objects is impossible without mitigation. The high rate of false switches of tracks between true objects greatly hinders the performance assessment of the target tracking system. In this paper, these challenges are addressed by adding probability of tracking to a probabilistic data association (PDA) technique for TTA. The computational algorithms for the implementation of the PDA technique are presented along with simulation results that confirm the effectiveness of the PDA approach in accurately estimating the sensor biases, and reducing the artificial track switches and ambiguity in the TTA.

In recent years, there has been considerable interest within the tracking community in an approach to data association based on the m-best two-dimensional (2D) assignment algorithm. Much of the interest has been spurred by its ability to provide various efficient data association solutions, including joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) and multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT). The focus of this work is to describe several recent improvements to the m-best 2D assignment algorithm. One improvement is to utilize a nonintrusive 2D assignment algorithm switching mechanism, based on a problem sparsity threshold. Dynamic switching between two different 2D assignment algorithms, highly suited for sparse and dense problems, respectively, enables more efficient solutions to the numerous 2D assignment problems generated in the m-best 2D assignment framework. Another improvement is to utilize a multilevel parallelization enabling many independent and highly parallelizable tasks to be executed concurrently, including 1) solving the multiple 2D assignment problems via a parallelization of the m-best partitioning task, and 2) calculating the numerous gating tests, state estimates, covariance calculations, and likelihood function evaluations (used as cost coefficients in the 2D assignment problem) via a parallelization of the data association interface task. Using both simulated data and an air traffic surveillance (ATS) problem based on data from two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control radars, we demonstrate that efficient solutions to the data association problem are obtainable using our improvements in the m-best 2D assignment algorithm.

Traditional multiple target tracking (MTT) algorithms such as JPDA, MHT, a basic assume that the targets are points source. This is unrealistic in many cases. We consider targets with certain geometrical shape and they may give multiple measurements using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach. We aim at estimating the states of targets, their shape parameters, and number of targets. The proposed approach is based on the clustering process of finite mixture models (FMM), where the parameters of the FMM are obtained by the MCMC sampler. The states of the targets are estimated by equivalent measurement (EQM). The final experiment of three target tracking verifies the proposed algorithm.

This paper evaluates the performance of multiple target tracking (MTT) algorithms in real-life stressful radar tracking environments. Real closely spaced maneuver radar data, generated by six F-18 fighters and other targets, were collected jointly by the defence departments of Canada and United States to support this practical MTT algorithm evaluation study. A set of performance metrics was defined here to compare the suboptimal nearest neighbor (SNN), global nearest neighbor (GNN), and various variants of the joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) MTT trackers. Results reveal an interesting result that all these MTT algorithms exhibited very close performance. In addition, the weighted sum approach of the PDA/JPDA trackers which are theoretically effective were observed to perform poorly in tracking closely spaced targets. Overall speaking, the GNN filter based on the Munkres algorithm had the best performance in terms of both tracking performance and robustness.

Hypothesis formation is a major computational burden for any multiple hypotheses tracking (MHT) method. In particular, a track-oriented MHT method defines compatible tracks to be tracks not sharing common observations and then re-forms hypotheses from compatible tracks after each new scan of data is received. The Cheap Joint Probabilistic Data Association (CJPDA) method provides an efficient means for computing approximate hypothesis probabilities. This paper presents a method of extending CJPDA calculations in order to eliminate low probability track branches in a track-oriented MHT method. The method is tested using IRST data. This approach reduces the number of tracks in a cluster and the resultant computations required for hypothesis formation. It is also suggested that the use of CJPDA methods can reduce assignment matrix sizes and resultant computations for the hypothesis-oriented (Reid’s algorithm) MHT implementation.

In this paper we extend a multitarget tracking algorithm for use in multisensory tracking situations. The algorithm we consider is Joint Probabilistic Data Association (JPDA). JPDA is extended to handle an arbitrary number of sensors under the assumption that the sensor measurement errors are independent across sensors. We also show how filtering can be handled in multisensory JPDA (MSJ PDA) without leading to an exponential increase in filtering complexity. Simulation results are presented comparing the performance of the MSJPDA with another multisensory fusion algorithm and with the single-sensor JPDA algorithm.

Variable Structure Multiple Model (VSMM) estimation generalizes Multiple Model (MM) estimation by assuming that the set of models used for MM estimation is time varying. By using VSMM estimation, a large model set which may cover all possible target maneuvers can be used without significant increase of computational load, while maintaining a reasonable estimation accuracy. Various implementable VSMM algorithms, like Model Group Switching (MGS), Likely Model Set (LMS) and Minimal Sub-Model-Set Switching (MSMSS) using the Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) algorithm with a sub-model-set adaptation logic have appeared in the recent literature. However, the use of these algorithms for tracking maneuvering target in clutter has not been explored. In presence of clutter, one need to use data association technique to differentiate target originated measurement from clutter. The probabilistic data association (PDA) has been popularly adopted to many algorithms for tracking in clutter. In this paper, we integrate PDA technique with MSMSS and propose a VSIMM-PDA algorithm for maneuvering target tracking in clutter. A new grating technique to account for potential model errors is used. A numeric example via multiple Monte Carlo runs, which compares the performance of the new algorithm to a standard IMM-PDA in terms of Root Mean Squared error (RMS) and percentage of track loss, is presented.© (2003) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Kalman filter and its families have played an important role in information gathering, such as target tracking. Data association techniques have also been developed to allow the Kalman filter to track multiple targets simultaneously. This paper revisits the principle and applications of the Kalman filter for single target tracking and multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) for multiple target tracking. We present the brief review of the Bayes filter family and introduce a brief derivation of the Kalman filter and MHT. We show examples for both single and multiple targets tracking in simulation to illustrate the efficacy of Kalman filter-based algorithms in target tracking scenarios.