Tracking a Maneuvering Target in Clutter by Asynchronous and Heterogeneous Sensors on Single Airborne Platform

A new algorithm is proposed for tracking a maneuvering target in clutter using heterogeneous sensors, such as active and passive sensors, which are carried on single moving airborne platform and report their observations asynchronously. The algorithm combining interacting multiple model (IMM) with probabilistic data association filter (PDAF) is sequentially implemented to cope with asynchronous reports. In addition, in order to close to practice, the algorithm is based on Earth-centered Earth-fixed (ECEF) coordinate system while it considers the effect of the platform’s attitude. So the algorithm extends previous algorithms from synchronous case to asynchronous case, from fixed station to moving airborne platform, and from local Cartesian coordinates to general ECEF coordinates. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has a broader and more practical scope while being slightly worse than existing algorithm which only be applied under synchronous case.