Aspects of target tracking: problems and techniques

We review the problems associated with tracking applications and outline available techniques for their solution. The classical application of target tracking is to manned surveillance systems such as air traffic control, maritime surveillance and airborne early warning. Here the outputs of tracking filters are displayed to an operator who then issues instructions to cooperative targets or directs interceptions. Until recently, the tracking filters employed in these systems have been rudimentary, typically featuring fixed gain alpha-beta filters with nearest-neighbour association logic. This has generally been acceptable because cooperative targets carry beacons and transponders, and an operator is available to resolve any problems. The target tracking process is usually viewed as part of the data processing sub-system and may be implemented on a general purpose processor. Signal processing is typically implemented on high speed special purpose processors