A branch-and-bound algorithm applied to optimal radar search pattern

In the article, the radar acquisition problem, e.g. the determination of a directional energy allocation sequence, is studied. The radar search pattern goal is the detection of a moving target whose initial location is approximately known. We have turned towards the general search theory where the observer allocates indivisible search efforts while the target presence probability spreads due to its dynamics. A few years ago, a Branch and Bound algorithm was proposed to determine the optimal sequence for a conditionally deterministic target. This operational research algorithm supposes a negative exponential detection function and a one over N detection logic, meaning that the target is declared detected if it has been detected once over a horizon of N looks. We have applied it to a narrow-beam tracking radar attempting to acquire a ballistic target. Non-trivial search patterns, such as expanding-contracting spirals, are obtained.     

Peformance of dynamic programming techniques forTrack-Before-Detect

“Track-Before-Detect” (TBD) is a target tracking technique where no threshold is applied at each measurement frame. Instead, data are processed over a number of frames before decisions on target existence are made. The track is returned simultaneously with the detection. A simple algorithm is presented and demonstrated via simulations. A detailed analysis enables detection and tracking performance to be predicted for particular algorithm parameters. Good performance is observed at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), with rapid degradation as SNR is reduced further. For some cases the detection performance does not improve regardless of how many frames of data are processed. Tracking performance may also be poor even though detection performance is good     

一种基于红外图像的目标自动识别算法

红外成像制导具有在各种复杂战术环境下自主搜索、捕获、识别和跟踪目标的能力,代表了当代红外制导技术的发展趋势。提出了一种红外图像预处理、跟踪、分类的自动目标识别算法,利用小波变换、形态学方法对红外图像进行预处理,提取不同频带的惯性不变矩作为特征量,利用神经网络进行分类识别,结果表明该算法具有很高的识别率,对于精确制导武器的目标识别研究具有一定的参考价值。     

Integrated track splitting filter--efficient multi-scan single target tracking in clutter

A fully automatic tracking algorithm must be able to deal with an unknown number of targets, unknown target initiation and termination times, false measurements and possibly time-varying target trajectory behaviour. An efficient algorithm for tracking in this environment is presented here. This approach makes use of estimates of the probability of target existence, which is an integral part of the algorithm. This allows for the efficient generation and management of possible target hypotheses, yielding an algorithm with performance that matches what can be obtained by multiple hypothesis tracking-based approaches, but at a significantly lower computational cost. This paper considers only the single target case for clarity. The extension to multiple targets is easily incorporated into this framework. Simulation studies are given that show the effectiveness of this approach in the presence of heavy and nonuniform clutter when tracking a target in an environment of low probability of detection and in an environment where the target performs violent manoeuvres.     

Generalized input-estimation technique for tracking maneuveringtargets

A new input estimation technique for target tracking problem is proposed. Conventional input estimation techniques assume that the target maneuver level is constant within the detection window, which has been the major drawback of the techniques. The proposed technique is developed to overcome this drawback by modeling the target maneuver as a linear combination of some basic time functions. The resulting algorithm has a generalized formulation including earlier works on input estimation. A detection performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed by investigating the detection sensitivity according to the selection of maneuver models and other design parameters such as the detection window size, measurement noise level, and sampling step size. A computer simulation study shows that the estimation performance of the proposed algorithm is comparable to Bogler's input estimation method while the computation time is greatly reduced     

Mixture Reduction Algorithms for Point and Extended Object Tracking in Clutter

The Bayesian solution to the problem of tracking a target with measurement association uncertainty gives rise to mixture distributions, which are composed of an ever increasing number of components. To produce a practical tracking filter, the growth of components must be controlled by approximating the mixture distribution. Two mixture reduction schemes (a joining algorithm and a clustering algorithm) have been derived for this purpose. If significant well spaced mixture components are present, these techniques can provide a useful improvement over the probabilistic data association filter (PDAF) approach, which reduces the mixture to a single Gaussian component at each time step. For the standard problem of tracking a point target in uniform random clutter, a Monte Carlo simulation study has been employed to identify the region of the problem parameter space where significant performance improvement is obtained over the PDAF. In the second part of this paper, the formal Bayesian filter is derived for an extended target consisting of an array of measurement sources with association uncertainty. A practical multiple hypothesis filter is implemented using mixture reduction and simulation results are presented.     

N-fold Bernoulli probability based adaptive fast-tracking algorithm and its application to autonomous aerial refuelling

Recently, deep learning has been widely utilized for object tracking tasks. However, deep learning encounters limits in tasks such as Autonomous Aerial Refueling (AAR), where the target object can vary substantially in size, requiring high-precision real-time performance in embedded systems. This paper presents a novel embedded adaptiveness single-object tracking framework based on an improved YOLOv4 detection approach and an n-fold Bernoulli probability theorem. First, an Asymmetric Convolutional Network (ACNet) and dense blocks are combined with the YOLOv4 architecture to detect small objects with high precision when similar objects are in the background. The prior object information, such as its location in the previous frame and its speed, is utilized to adaptively track objects of various sizes. Moreover, based on the n-fold Bernoulli probability theorem, we develop a filter that uses statistical laws to reduce the false positive rate of object tracking. To evaluate the efficiency of our algorithm, a new AAR dataset is collected, and extensive AAR detection and tracking experiments are performed. The results demonstrate that our improved detection algorithm is better than the original YOLOv4 algorithm on small and similar object detection tasks; the object tracking algorithm is better than state-of-the-art object tracking algorithms on refueling drogue tracking tasks.     

复杂环境下一种基于改进核相关滤波的视觉鲁棒目标跟踪方法

目标跟踪在自动驾驶和智能监控系统等实时视觉应用中发挥着重要作用。在遮挡、相似干扰等情况下，传统的基于相关滤波的跟踪算法容易发生漂移，鲁棒性有待进一步提高。基于此，提出了一种扩展特征描述的检测辅助核相关滤波目标跟踪架构。首先，在传统的核相关滤波目标跟踪算法的基础上，通过目标检测辅助对跟踪结果进行质量判断，实现对遮挡以及目标丢失的判别；然后通过拓展特征模板的构建与匹配，实现抗干扰相似目标判断及目标重定位；最终，以行人跟踪为例进行了试验，分别通过OTB数据及验证试验和移动机器人平台视觉跟踪验证试验，验证了算法的可行性，并对算法的跟踪性能进行了测试。试验结果表明，所提方法能够稳定地跟踪移动目标，对遮挡、相似干扰具有较强的鲁棒性。     

A PDF multitarget tracker

A probability density function (pdf) based approach to the multitarget tracking problem is presented. The input data are obtained by measurements over time from a front-end detector. The desired output is the number of targets present and the parameters of each target. The same approach has previously been used for time delay detection and tracking problems and is adapted to this problem This approach is an alternative to the traditional approach of “association” and “tracking” on the measurements     

Minimal submodel-set algorithm for maneuvering target tracking

The variable structure multiple model (VSMM) approach to the maneuvering target tracking problem is considered. A new VSMM design, the minimal submodel-set switching (MSMSS) algorithm for tracking a maneuvering target is presented. The MSMSS algorithm adaptively determines the minimal set of models from the total model set and uses this to perform multiple models (MM) estimation. In addition, an iterative MSMSS algorithm with improved maneuver detection and termination properties is developed. Simulations results demonstrate that, compared with a standard interacting MM (IMM), the proposed algorithms require significantly lower computation while maintaining similar tracking performance. Alternatively, for a computational load similar to IMM, the new algorithms display significantly improved performance.     

弹道导弹助推段拦截融合跟踪算法研究

针对空基雷达数据率低的特点,提出一种新的基于雷达/红外成像的机动目标跟踪信息融合算法.建立了弹道导弹目标机动模型和雷达/红外成像导引头观测方程,以动能拦截弹红外成像导引头数据更新时间为基准,以空基雷达采样周期为间隔对距离信息进行实时修正,推导了雷达/红外成像复合制导信息融合跟踪扩展卡尔曼滤波算法.仿真结果表明,该算法融...     

A tracking algorithm for maneuvering targets

A methodology for the tracking of maneuvering targets is presented. A quickest-detection scheme based on the innovation sequence is developed for a prompt detection of target maneuvers. The optimal length of a sliding window that minimizes the maneuver detection delay for a given false-alarm rate is determined. After maneuver detection, the system model is modified by adding a maneuver term. A recursive algorithm is proposed to estimate the maneuver magnitude. With this estimate, a modified Kalman filter is used for tracking. Simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of the algorithm, especially during target maneuvers     

Data fusion and tracking using HMMs in a distributed sensor network

This work deals with the problem of multiple target tracking, from the measurements made on a field of passive sonars activated by an active sonar (multistatic network). The difficulties encountered then are of two kinds: each sensor alone does not provide full observability of a target, and multiple, possibly maneuvering targets moving in a cluttered environment must be dealt with. The algorithm presented here is based on a discrete Markovian modelization of the targets evolution in time. It starts with a fusion of the detections obtained at each measurement time. Tracking and target motion analysis (TMA) are next achieved thanks to dynamic programming (DP). This approach leads to multiple and maneuvering target tracking, with few assumptions; for instance, the use of deterministic target state models are avoided. Simulation results are presented and discussed.     

Design of a practical tracking algorithm with radar measurements

The extended Kalman filter (EKF) has been widely used as a nonlinear filtering method for radar tracking problems. However, it has been found that if cross-range measurement errors of the target position are large, the performance of the conventional EKF degrades considerably due to nonnegligible nonlinear effects. A new filtering algorithm for improving the tracking performance with radar measurements is developed based on the fact that correct evaluation of the measurement error covariance is possible in the Cartesian coordinate system. The proposed algorithm may be viewed as a modification of the EKF in which the variance of the range measurement errors is evaluated in an adaptive manner. The filter structure facilitates the incorporation of the sequential measurement processing scheme, and this makes the resulting algorithm favorable to both estimation accuracy and computational efficiency. Computer simulation results show that the proposed method offers superior performance in comparison to previous methods. Moreover, our developed algorithm provides some useful insight into the radar tracking problem     

基于注意力机制和特征匹配的空对地多目标检测与跟踪算法

多目标跟踪算法是实现无人机自主导航的关键技术，为解决现有方法存在的小目标检测能力弱、计算能耗大、鲁棒性差等问题，提出一种基于注意力机制和特征匹配的多目标空对地跟踪算法，以实现航拍视角下对目标的精准高效跟踪。首先，引入通道可分离卷积，实现目标检测模型的轻量化；其次，构造融合空间注意力机制的小目标检测分支，提高对小微目标的检测精度，最后，优化目标跟踪算法的外观重识别网络，提高多目标跟踪效率。使用Visdrone2019-MOT数据集对所提算法进行验证，实验结果表明，所提算法的MOTA值提高了0.６%，FPS值为21.31帧/s，在模型大小和跟踪精度上实现了较好的平衡。     

Interacting acceleration compensation algorithm for trackingmaneuvering targets

The two-stage Kalman estimator has been studied for state estimation in the presence of random bias and applied to the tracking of maneuvering targets by treating the target acceleration as a bias vector. Since the target acceleration is considered a bias, the first stage contains a constant velocity motion model and estimates the target position and velocity, while the second stage estimates the target acceleration when a maneuver is detected, the acceleration estimate is used to correct the estimates of the first stage. The interacting acceleration compensation (IAC) algorithm is proposed to overcome the requirement of explicit maneuver detection of the two-stage estimator. The IAC algorithm is viewed as a two-stage estimator having two acceleration models: the zero acceleration of the constant velocity model and a constant acceleration model. The interacting multiple model (IMM) algorithm is used to compute the acceleration estimates that compensate the estimate of the constant velocity filter. Simulation results indicate the tracking performance of the IAC algorithm approaches that of a comparative IMM algorithm while requiring approximately 50% of the computations     

无人机光电载荷地理跟踪控制研究

无人机定点侦察过程中,将地理目标点或图像目标快速锁定在视场内,是十分重要的。在实时定点航迹规划与跟随控制的基础上,提出了光电任务载荷地理跟踪算法,并通过仿真和飞行试验,证明算法可以满足机载平台对地面目标快速锁定的要求。     

A sequential detection approach to target tracking

Sequential hypothesis testing is investigated for multiframe detection and tracking of low-observable maneuvering point-source targets in a digital image sequence. The proposed multiple multistage hypothesis test tracking (MMHTT) algorithm extends tracks formed from sequentially detected target trajectory segments using a multiple hypothesis tracking strategy. The MMHTT algorithm does not require a probabilistic larger maneuver model. Computational efficiency is achieved by using a truncated sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) to prune a dense tree of candidate target trajectories and score the detected trajectory segments. An analytical performance evaluation is presented and confirmed by experimental results from an optical satellite tracking application     

EM-ML algorithm for track initialization using possibly noninformative data

Initializing and maintaining a track for a low observable (LO) (low SNR, low target detection probability and high false alarm rate) target can be very challenging because of the low information content of measurements. In addition, in some scenarios, target-originated measurements might not be present in many consecutive scans because of mispointing, target maneuvers, or erroneous preprocessing. That is, one might have a set of noninformative scans that could result in poor track initialization and maintenance. In this paper an algorithm based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm combined with maximum likelihood (ML) estimation is presented for tracking slowly maneuvering targets in heavy clutter and possibly noninformative scans. The adaptive sliding-window EM-ML approach, which operates in batch mode, tries to reject or weight down noninformative scans using the Q-function in the M-step of the EM algorithm. It is shown that target features in the form of, for example, amplitude information (AI), can also be used to improve the estimates. In addition, performance bounds based on the supplemented EM (SEM) technique are also presented. The effectiveness of new algorithm is first demonstrated on a 78-frame long wave infrared (LWIR) data sequence consisting of an Fl Mirage fighter jet in heavy clutter. Previously, this scenario has been used as a benchmark for evaluating the performance of other track initialization algorithms. The new EM-ML estimator confirms the track by frame 20 while the ML-PDA (maximum likelihood estimator combined with probabilistic data association) algorithm, the IMM-MHT (interacting multiple model estimator combined with multiple hypothesis tracking) and the EVIM-PDA estimator previously required 28, 38, and 39 frames, respectively. The benefits of the new algorithm in terms of accuracy, early detection, and computational load are illustrated using simulated scenarios as well.     

一种新的基于机动检测的机动目标跟踪算法

针对Kalman滤波跟踪机动目标发散和目前多数自适应Kalman滤波算法对运动模型适应性不强的问题,提出了一种新的基于机动检测的机动目标跟踪算法,通过实时自适应的改变滤波模型提高对机动目标跟踪精度。对这种方法与Kalman滤波算法进行了计算机仿真比较,结果表明,该方法计算量小,可实时精确地自适应匹配目标的运动模型,可实现对机动目标稳定可靠的跟踪。