A number of 'bearing-only' target motion analysis algorithms have appeared in the literature over the years, all suited to track an object based solely on noisy measurements of its angular position. In their paper 'Utilization of Modified Polar (MP) Coordinates for Bearings-Only Tracking' Aidala and Hammel advocate a filter in which the observable and unobservable states are naturally decoupled. While the MP filter has certain advantages over Cartesian and pseudolinear extended Kalman filters, it does not escape the requirement for the observer to steer an optimum maneuvering course to guarantee acceptable performance. This paper demonstrates by simulation the consequence if the observer deviates from this profile, even if it is sufficient to produce full state observability.
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