Detection & tracking method for radar target based on plot-track quality evaluation

Abstract

A joint target detection and tracking method based on plot-track quality evaluation (PTQE-D&T) is proposed here. The presented method consists of three consecutive steps. First, a set of candidate plots is extracted from the Detector and Plot-Extractor, where the plot quality is calculated simultaneously based on multi-dimensional echoes constituting the plot. Then, a track-before-detect (TBD) processor based on dynamic programming (DP) is utilised to jointly elaborate the observations from multiple scans and outputs potential tracks to be confirmed. Finally, a confirmation strategy is introduced via plot-track quality evaluation. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, where two data sets collected from a ground-based surface-search radar and a ship borne 3D radar are used. Moreover, the proposed PTQE-D&T structure is totally consistent with conventional radar data processing architecture, meaning that it is promising in engineering applications.

Keywords

• radar detection
• object detection
• target tracking
• dynamic programming
• search radar
• radar tracking
• marine radar
• ships
• radar cross-sections
• plot-track quality evaluation
• Plot-Extractor
• track-before-detect processor
• ground-based surface-search radar
• tracking method
• target detection
• PTQE-D&T
• TBD processor
• dynamic programming
• ship borne 3D radar
• radar data processing architecture
• multidimensional echoes