Tracking maneuvering targets with multiple sensors: does more data always mean better estimates?

In many multisensor systems the number and type of sensors supporting a particular target track can vary with time due to the mobility, type, and resource limitations of the individual sensors. This variability in the configuration of the sensor system poses a significant problem when tracking maneuvering targets because of the uncertainty in the target motion model. A Kalman filter is often employed to filter the position measurements for estimating the position, velocity, and acceleration of a target. When designing the Kalman filter, the process noise (acceleration) variance Q _k is selected such that the 65 to 95% probability region contains the maximum acceleration level of the target. However, when targets maneuver, the acceleration changes in a deterministic manner. Thus, the white noise assumption associated with the process noise is violated and the filter develops a bias in the state estimates during maneuvers. The problem of tracking maneuvering targets with multiple sensors is illustrated through an example involving target motion in a single coordinate in which it is shown that with two sensors one can have (under certain conditions that include perfect alignment of the sensors) worse track performance than a single sensor. The Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) algorithm is applied to the illustrative example to demonstrate a potential solution to this problem of track filter performance.