Situation Awareness and Tracking Algorithm for Countering Low-Altitude Swarm Target Threats
Nannan Zhu, Fuli Zhong, Xueyue Lei, Guo Ling Niu, Hongtu Xie, Yue Zhang · Remote Sensing · 2025
The escalating threat posed by low-altitude swarm targets underscores the critical need for precise tracking and situation awareness to secure key areas. While existing tracking methods based on random matrix theory offer promising opportunities, they face significant challenges. The high similarity among swarm targets, combined with radar resolution limitations, often leads to instabilities in target counts and measurements due to occlusion, environmental factors, and other disturbances, significantly increasing tracking complexity. To address these challenges, we design a digital staring radar system integrated with an adaptive random matrix method for efficient tracking of low-altitude swarm targets. The system achieves full spatiotemporal coverage without beam scanning or complex resource scheduling, enabling simultaneous detection and tracking of multiple targets. Algorithmically, the random matrix model is enhanced by introducing extension parameters to accurately capture the dynamic changes in swarm shape. Leveraging an adaptive Rao-Blackwellized Particle Filter (RBPF), the presented method jointly estimates the motion and extension states of swarm targets. Extensive simulation experiments and real-data validation demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves the estimation accuracy for swarm extension states under complex shape variations while maintaining high precision in motion state estimation. This work provides a practical and effective solution for countering low-altitude swarm threats, with strong potential for real-world security applications.