Use of range-rate measurements in automatic track formation

Abstract

In this paper, the authors investigate the use of range rate measurements via Doppler processing to decrease the probability of false track initiation, and the constraints that the use of these techniques may impose on the radar design. Both constant-velocity and accelerating targets are considered. First, the general track initialization and gating problem is formulated and the classical approach to range-bearing track initiation is described. An analysis of the problem of resolving Doppler ambiguity in the presence of errors is then presented followed by a Maximum Likelihood estimation approach to track initialization using range and range-rate measurements for maneuvering and non-maneuvering targets. These algorithms were applied to a notional radar system with variable target RCS, desired probability of false alarm, and track frame time (time between measurements). The results of these simulations show the proposed gating algorithms to be more robust than standard range-angle gating in terms of false track rate. The ability of the radar to initiate track on an accelerating target is preserved by using a maneuvering target gating model at the cost of a slight increase in false track rate.