An algorithm of heterogeneous sensors track fusion for target tracking

Heterogeneous sensors have been widely used in the military and unmilitary systems. For target tracking, both radars and infrared sensors occupy a crucial role in getting target information. Radars provide the 3-D coordinates, while infrared sensors supplies azimuth and elevation information. Thus, it challenges the track fusion in the system involving both radars and infrared sensors. This paper focuses on the track fusion of the data from radars and infrared sensors. Temporal and spatial alignments need to be done to agree on a common notion of time and to the common reference coordinate system. Then a track fusion method based on maximum likelihood estimate is developed in this paper. Finally, simulations show the effectiveness of the algorithm.