A generalized S-dimensional algorithm for multisensor multitarget state-estimation

Presents a fast near-optimal assignment algorithm to solve a generalized multidimensional assignment problem. Such problems arise in surveillance systems estimating the position of an unknown number of targets. The central problem in a multisensor-multitarget state estimation problem is that of data association-the problem of determining from which target, if any, a particular measurement originated. The data-association problem is formulated as a generalized S-dimensional (S-D) assignment problem, which is NP-hard for 3 or more sensor scans (S⩾3). In this paper, the authors present an efficient and recursive generalized S-D assignment algorithm (S⩾3) with application to the localization of unknown number of emitters using multiple high frequency direction finders