Maneuver detection using the radar range rate measurement

Abstract

Tracking maneuvering targets with radar is complicated because radar cannot directly measure target accelerations. We use the range rate measurement to calculate a new statistic that is a surrogate measurement of target acceleration under a constant rate turn model. Its distribution is found via simulation. A threshold test of the statistic turns out to be a reliable detector of a maneuver. A tracker that uses a threshold test of the new statistic of accelerations to detect maneuvers and set. the process noise in a Kalman filter tracker is developed and compared with other, common maneuvering track filters. The new method compares favorably to a two mode interacting multiple model (IMM) and a tracker that switches process noise levels based on the position measurement innovations.