DECOUPLING PROBABILISTIC DATA ASSOCIATION ALGORITHM FOR MULTIPLATFORMMULTISENSOR TRACKING

In a multiplatform multisensor system, it is crucial to develop a prac tical algorithm under computation and communication constraints. A pra ctical data association algorithm is presented. A decoupling probabili stic data association (DPDA) algorithm is proposed. The new algorithm decouples the joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) algorithm in to separate PDA algorithms in a simple way because the complete decoup ling PDA algorithm is too complex and loses its meaning for realtime u se when there are more than three correlated targets. The algorithm is then extended to multiplatform multisensor tracking, where it is comb ined with a distributed algorithm. To evaluate a data association algo rithm, the correct average probability (CAP) is used. The CAP is defin ed as the average probability of a true target measurement. Monte Carl o simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm. (C) 1998 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.