Abstract
Vessel speed and heading are two important kinematic parameters describing its state of motion. However, due to low spatial resolution of a compact high-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR), vessel speed and heading cannot always be accurately estimated. Since HFSWR can measure vessel Doppler velocity with relatively high accuracy, it is possible to estimate a vessel's vector velocity based on two Doppler velocities measured along two different directions. In this article, a newly developed T/R-R composite compact HFSWR system is introduced, and a corresponding vessel velocity estimation method which employs a target's radial velocity and elliptical velocity, respectively, measured by the monostatic (T/R) and bistatic (T-R) settings is proposed. First, monostatic and bistatic tracks are independently generated using a multitarget tracking algorithm. Then, the obtained monostatic and bistatic tracks are matched using a track-to-track association method to determine the track pair belonging to each target. Subsequently, the associated track pairs are combined to produce fused tracks for improving positioning accuracy. Finally, vessel vector velocity is estimated based on the radial and elliptical velocities as well as the fused target position. Comparisons of vector velocity estimation results from radar field data with corresponding automatic identification system data demonstrate that the average root-mean-square-errors of the estimated speed and heading are 0.48 km/h and 3.9 $^{\circ }$ , respectively, which meets the practical requirements of a maritime surveillance system. Moreover, the velocity estimation error is analyzed via theoretical derivation and experimental verification. The proposed method shows good potential in further improving the tracking accuracy.
Highlights
A S an important over-the-horizon ocean remote sensing sensor for both wide-area sea state inversion [1] and long-range sea-surface targets detection and tracking [2], [3], compact high-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) has raised significant interest in recent years for their deployment flexibility and less space requirement [4]
As the converted measurement Kalman filter is implemented under Cartesian coordinate, to clearly describe the track-to-track association and fusion procedure, the state of a target detected by T/R monostatic radar at sampling time k in Cartesian coordinate system is denoted as s1(k) = [x1k x 1k yk1 yk1]T, where x1k, yk1 are the target’s locations in x–y coordinate, x 1k and yk1 denote the target’s velocities in x and y directions
2) Results of the Proposed Method: Since the proposed vector velocity estimation method depends on target bistatic angle or bearing and Doppler velocity, these parameters for the aforementioned two example targets will be analyzed first
Summary
A S an important over-the-horizon ocean remote sensing sensor for both wide-area sea state (current, wave, wind, etc.) inversion [1] and long-range sea-surface targets detection and tracking [2], [3], compact high-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) has raised significant interest in recent years for their deployment flexibility and less space requirement [4]. In order to enhance the target detection performance of compact radar systems, networking observation becomes a feasible strategy and research focus [16], [17], but it brings an increase in system complexity and cost. To achieve a tradeoff between system performance and its complexity and cost, a T/R-R composite radar system consisting of a T/R monostatic radar and a T-R bistatic radar, as shown, offers a new choice [18], [19] and can be regarded as the basic configuration of a networking system. In [15], analysis was only focused on target tracking performance of the T-R bistatic radar of a T/R-R system. A newly developed T/R-R composite compact HFSWR system is introduced, and a target vector velocity estimation method, which consists of a track association and fusion module and a vector velocity estimation module, is designed for such a system
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