A Dempster-Shafer approach to multi-sensor track association

• Published in: 2016 IEEE Aerospace Conference pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: Testa, Loretta A., Pickle, Catherine Durand, Blackman, Samuel S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.03.2016
• Subjects: Cognition; Companies; Feature extraction; Radar detection; Radar tracking; Target tracking
• DOI: 10.1109/AERO.2016.7500792

Logic for the Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidential reasoning algorithm has been extended for application to multi-sensor data association. For this paper, it is assumed that a global MHT tracker must associate radar tracks with tracks from a second sensor that measures target features, such as carrier frequency in RF or color in the visible. Both sensors may form tracks on the same targets, or there may be cases where the feature sensor forms tracks when the radar sensor does not, and vice versa. There may also be more than one feature track reported from a single source, such that multiple feature tracks may be associated with a single radar track. Additionally, radar tracks may be lost when a target slows down or stops, but it is still desired to maintain the feature-track to radar-track association. This can be considered a version of the classical track-to-track (T2T) problem, but several extensions have been made. First, more accurate association is made by using track history. Typical T2T logic compares only the current state estimates, but the proposed D-S method effectively accumulates probability over time, taking into account the time histories of the tracks. Second, the one-to-one track association restriction of standard T2T logic is expanded upon to allow multiple feature tracks to associate with a single radar track. Next, an extension has been made to allow for association of tracks that have different dimension, so a three dimensional track can associate with an angle only track. Finally, logic has been added to recognize when a target has potentially stopped, in which case the target is no longer detected by radar and the associated track has been deleted, but a pseudo stopped track can still be associated with an existing feature track.