A novel three-dimensional data association algorithm for 2D radars and sensors

Fast and precise data association methods are very important in heterogeneous sensor information fusion system. In order to solve the typical problem of three-dimensional data association in heterogeneous sensor system which is composed with 2D radar and IRST, a new algorithm is presented. Firstly, the precise azimuth and elevation of IRST and radial distance of 2D radar are used to obtain the possible position of target in two-dimensional coordinate, and angle statistics is constructed to eliminate most false points. Then, the two-dimensional assignment algorithm is used to achieve the optimum assignment solution. Simulation results show that the proposed method is an effective data association method, and the probability of right association is improved obviously.