Manoeuvring target tracking with the IMM-VDA algorithm

This paper describes an algorithm for tracking a manoeuvring target in heavy clutter and/or with a low probability of detection. It is known that when tracking under such adverse conditions multi-scan tracking algorithms, such as the multi-hypothesis tracker (MHT), provide improved performance over single-scan trackers. This paper uses a computationally efficient algorithm for multi-scan target tracking based on the Viterbi algorithm, known as the Viterbi data association (VDA) algorithm. In this paper it is shown how the VDA algorithm can be combined with the well-known interacting multiple model (IMM) method to create an effective multi-scan manoeuvring target tracker. The performance of the IMM-VDA algorithm is shown by simulation. It is compared to another manoeuvring target algorithm based on the VDA approach which uses a hard decision manoeuvre detection scheme. In addition, it is compared to a single-scan tracking algorithm based on the probabilistic data association method.