SEARCH RADAR DETECTION AND TRACK WITH THE HOUGH TRANSFORM .1. SYSTEM CONCEPT

A method of viewing search radar signals and data is described and ana lyzed in which the image processing technique of the Hough transform i s used to extract detections and simultaneous tracks from multi-dimens ional data maps. System design concepts are considered and simulation examples are given that illustrate the concept. The technique offers m any advantages when compared with more traditional techniques. These a dvantages include improved detection, a solution to the range walk pro blem, flexibility of implementation, elimination of slow scan-rate lat ency and automatic track acquisition without revisit. The concept is s imilar to track-before-detect algorithms that use preliminary informat ion from previous scans to aid in target declarations. The companion p aper, Part II: Detection Statistics, gives a detailed analysis of the probability-of-detection and false-alarm rate for this Hough detector. The third paper, Part III: Detection Performance with Binary Detectio n, describes and analyzes a variation of this technique that has more robust performance in the presence of multiple targets with high dynam ic range.