Poisson models for extended target and group tracking

Kevin Gilholm; Simon Godsill; Simon Maskell; David Salmond

doi:10.1117/12.618730

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15 September 2005 Poisson models for extended target and group tracking

Kevin Gilholm, Simon Godsill, Simon Maskell, David Salmond

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Proceedings Volume 5913, Signal and Data Processing of Small Targets 2005; 59130R (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.618730
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

It is common practice to represent a target group (or an extended target) as set of point sources and attempt to formulate a tracking filter by constructing possible assignments between measurements and the sources. We suggest an alternative approach that produces a measurement model (likelihood) in terms of the spatial density of measurements over the sensor observation region. In particular, the measurements are modelled as a Poisson process with a spatially dependent rate parameter. This representation allows us to model extended targets as an intensity distribution rather than a set of points and, for a target formation, it gives the option of modelling part of the group as a spatial distribution of target density. Furthermore, as a direct consequence of the Poisson model, the measurement likelihood may be evaluated without constructing explicit association hypotheses. This considerably simplifies the filter and gives a substantial computational saving in a particle filter implementation. The Poisson target-measurement model will be described and its relationship to other filters will be discussed. Illustrative simulation examples will be presented.

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Kevin Gilholm, Simon Godsill, Simon Maskell, and David Salmond "Poisson models for extended target and group tracking", Proc. SPIE 5913, Signal and Data Processing of Small Targets 2005, 59130R (15 September 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.618730

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