Target correlation algorithm between two-dimensional angle sensors

Abstract

When several moving targets are detected by two two-dimensional angle sensors (elevation and azimuth angles) separately spaced, three-dimensional tracking of each target is possible if the range to each target is computed by triangulation. What is important in such a step is correlation processing to find out which pairs of sensor information are obtained from the same target. Especially, if several targets enter a region that can be considered within the same plane seen from the two angle sensors, a false intersection with no actual target, namely, a ghost, is generated among the intersections of the line of sight from the sensor to the target so that the correlation process becomes difficult. In this paper, the angle and angular velocity of the target with respect to each sensor are tracked by an angle tracking filter. The proposed system for the correlation process carries out discrimination of the same target by using the angle tracking results. By means of simulation, the performance of the proposed system is investigated. It is made clear that the proposed system can effectively eliminate the ghosting when several targets enter temporarily the same plane. © 1998 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 82(2): 30–38, 1999