Range and brightness fusion: using radar and electro-optical data association for tracking small objects
Philip G. Whitehead, Mark Bernhardt, Duncan L. Hickman, Christopher Dent · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2003
In this paper we consider the tracking of small distant objects using Radar and Electro-Optical (EO) sensors. In particular we address the problem of data association after coalescence - this happens when two objects become sufficiently close (in angular terms) that they can no longer be resolved by the EO sensor. Some moments later they de-coalesce and the resulting detections must be associated with the existing tracks in the EO sensor. Traditionally this would be solved by making use of the velocity vectors of the objects prior to coalescence. This approach can work well for crossing objects, but when the objects are largely moving in a direction radial to the sensor it becomes problematic. Here we investigate the use of data fusion to combine Radar range with a brightness measure derived from an EO sensor to enhance the accuracy of data association. We present a number of results on the performance of this approach taking into account target motion, atmospheric conditions and sensor noise.