3-D Hough transform for surveillance radar target detection

A 3D Hough transform is introduced for detection of linear trajectories in a 3D data space. Data space is constructed from returned radar data using range, bearing, and time information. This information is then mapped into a 3D Cartesian data space. The constant velocity target trajectories appear as straight lines in this space, and are detected by the usage of 3D Hough transform. The efficacy of the 3D Hough transform is verified by simulation. In comparison with the 2D case, when only the range-time information is used, the 3D Hough transform has a better performance.