Single target tracking for noncooperative bistatic radar with unknown signal illumination

Abstract

This paper addresses the single target tracking problem of noncooperative bistatic radar using the phased array radar (PAR) as the illuminator. In addition to missed detections, false alarms, and the nonlinear measurement model, the intermittent and unknown signal illumination from the noncooperative PAR is the major challenge. This paper establishes a binary random variable to represent the intermittent property of signal illumination, and uses the Bernoulli/Markov process to describe its prior probability distribution. In the Bayesian framework, this paper constructs the joint probability density function (PDF) incorporating the kinematic state of the target and the unknown intermittent property of signal illumination, and proposes the soft Bayesian filter (SBF) and the hard Bayesian filter (HBF). Furthermore, this paper uses two groups of particles to describe the joint PDF, and proposes the particle filtering implementation of the SBF and the HBF. In addition, this paper proposes the intermittent Bayesian filter (IBF) and its particle filtering implementation for single target tracking with cooperative PAR illuminator, which is adopted as the baseline to evaluate the performance of the SBF and the HBF. Computer simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed methods, and evaluate their performance with respect to different signal illumination modes and measurement noises.