Target motion analysis using range-only measurements: algorithms, performance and application to ISAR data

Abstract

The paper considers the problem of target motion analysis from range and range-rate target measurements. The motivation for this work comes from the need to track the target motion with the Ingara multi-mode radar during an extended data collection in the ISAR mode. The paper makes three main contributions. First, the theoretical Cramér–Rao bound for the performance of an unbiased range-only tracking algorithm is derived. Second, three algorithms for target motion analysis (using range and range-rate measurements only) are developed and compared to the theoretical bounds of performance. The three algorithms are: the maximum likelihood estimator, the extended Kalman filter and the regularised particle filter. Finally, the paper presents the results of the application of the developed theory to the ISAR data collected in the recent trials with the Ingara radar.