A simple approach to observer path design for bearings-only tracking

The problem of designing an optimal observer path for bearings-only target motion analysis is of continuing research interest due to the nonlinear nature of the tracking problem. The objective of the study is to show via simulation that the cumulative information content index (CICI), which is the sum of the determinants of the Fisher information matrices over time, can be an effective index in determining the best observer heading strategy for the observer path. By using the CICI as the performance index for optimization, the current study has revealed that for a tracking filter in Cartesian coordinates, the performance of the filter depends not only on the angle of turn of the observer maneuver but also on the range rate between the observer and the target