An algorithm for reducing the swap of targets during the marine radar tracking

Radar is an important navigational and anti-collision system to ensure the safety of navigation, but it has some limitations in practical application. As there often appear two or more goals in the radar tracking window, if these objectives are in close proximity, tracking error will be caused, and therefore the targets will swap. As AIS can provide steady and continuous navigation data from GPS or DGPS in higher precision, this paper takes advantage of AIS information and puts forward an algorithm to reduce the target swaps in radar tracking. Besides, according to different circumstances in the existence of AIS information in radar tracking window, this article specifically explains the usages of the algorithm in various situations. In the simulation, the proposed algorithm was experimented on a navigational radar simulator and a pc based platform programmed with VC++. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm to reduce the target swaps is feasible and effective.