Tracking with Consistent Converted Measurements vs the EKF

Abstract

In tracking applications target motion is usually best modeled in a simple fashion using Cartesian coordinates. However, in most systems the target position measurements are provided in terms of range and azimuth (bearing) with respect to the sensor location. This situation requires either converting the measurements 10 a Cartesian frame of reference and working directly on converted measurements or using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) in mixed coordinates. An accurate means of tracking with debiased consistent converted measurements is presented which accurately accounts for the sensor inaccuracies over all practical geometries and accuracies. This method is compared to the mixed coordinate EKF approach as well as the standard converted measurement approach discussed in [1] and [4] which is an acceptable approximation only for moderate cross range errors. This new approach is shown 10 be more accurate in terms of position and velocity errors and provides consistent estimates (i.e. compatible with the filter calculated covariances) for all practical situations. The combination of parameters (range, range accuracy, and azimuth accuracy) for which debiasing is needed is presented in explicit form.