Multiframe track-before-detect method based on velocity filtering in mixed coordinates

Abstract

In this paper, a velocity filtering based track-before-detect algorithm in mixed coordinates is presented to address the problem of integration loss caused by inaccurate motion model in polar coordinate sensors. Since the motion of a constant velocity (CV) target is better modeled in Cartesian coordinates, the search of measurements for integration in polar sensor coordinates is carried out according to the CV model in Cartesian coordinates instead of an approximate model in polar sensor coordinates. The position of each cell is converted into Cartesian coordinates and predicted according to an assumed velocity. Then, the predicted Cartesian position is converted back to polar sensor coordinates for multiframe accumulation. The use of the correct model improves integration effectiveness and consequently improves algorithm performance. To handle the weak target with unknown velocity, a velocity filter bank in mixed coordinates is presented. The influence of velocity mismatch on the performance of filter bank is analyzed, and an efficient strategy for filter bank design is proposed. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.