Track-before-detect for surveillance radar: a recursive filter based approach

摘要

In this paper the initial results are presented of a recursive filter based approach to Track Before Detect (TBD) for surveillance radar. Because of the relatively low update rate and large amount of data per scan, brute force methods such as the velocity filter banks or Hough transform for electro-optical sensors are not feasible. We therefore have designed a recursive algorithm that integrates the measured signal strength only for the most likely target trajectory. Furthermore, this algorithm is only started for those radar cells in a scan that have exceeded a preselection threshold. As will be shown, the use of a low preselection threshold significantly reduces the number of radar cells to be considered at a negligible performance reduction. The feasibility of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through simulations. Further research planned and possible extensions to the initial approach are discussed.