Tracking methods in a multitarget environment

The objective of this paper is to survey and put in perspective the existing methods of tracking in multitarget environment. In such an environment the origin of the measurements can be uncertain: they could have come from the target(s) of interest or clutter or false alarms or be due to the background. This compact and unified presentation of the state-of-art in multitarget tracking was motivated by the recent surge of interest in this problem. It is also hoped to be useful in view of the need to adapt and modify existing techniques before using them for specific problems. Particular attention is paid to the assumptions underlying each algorithm and its applicability to various situations.