Multipath-assisted multitarget tracking with reflection point uncertainty
M. Subramaniam, Ratnasingham Tharmarasa, M. McDonald, Thia Kirubarajan · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2010
In this paper, the previous work multipath-assisted multitarget tracking using multiframe assignment is extended to the case where there are uncertainties in multipath reflection points at the receiver. An algorithm is proposed for initiating and tracking multiple targets using multiple transmitters and receivers. This algorithm is capable of exploiting multipath target returns from distinct and unknown propagation modes. When multipath returns are not utilized appropriately within the tracker, (e.g., discarded as clutter or incorporated with incorrect propagation mode assumption) the potential information in the multipath returns is lost. In real scenarios, it is more appropriate to assume that the locations of the reflection points/surfaces are not accurately known. Integrating multipath information into the tracker by correctly identifying the multipath mode and identifying the reflection point can help improve the accuracy of tracking. The challenge in improving tracking results using multipath measurements is the fusion of direct and multipath measurements from the common target when the multipath-reflection mode is unknown. The problem becomes even more challenging with false alarms and missed detections. We propose an algorithm to track the target with uncertainty in multipath reflection points/surface using the multiframe assignment technique. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on a ground target tracking problem.