491 research outputs found
3D Localization and Tracking Methods for Multi-Platform Radar Networks
Multi-platform radar networks (MPRNs) are an emerging sensing technology due
to their ability to provide improved surveillance capabilities over plain
monostatic and bistatic systems. The design of advanced detection,
localization, and tracking algorithms for efficient fusion of information
obtained through multiple receivers has attracted much attention. However,
considerable challenges remain. This article provides an overview on recent
unconstrained and constrained localization techniques as well as multitarget
tracking (MTT) algorithms tailored to MPRNs. In particular, two data-processing
methods are illustrated and explored in detail, one aimed at accomplishing
localization tasks the other tracking functions. As to the former, assuming a
MPRN with one transmitter and multiple receivers, the angular and range
constrained estimator (ARCE) algorithm capitalizes on the knowledge of the
transmitter antenna beamwidth. As to the latter, the scalable sum-product
algorithm (SPA) based MTT technique is presented. Additionally, a solution to
combine ARCE and SPA-based MTT is investigated in order to boost the accuracy
of the overall surveillance system. Simulated experiments show the benefit of
the combined algorithm in comparison with the conventional baseline SPA-based
MTT and the stand-alone ARCE localization, in a 3D sensing scenario
Simplified multitarget tracking using the PHD filter for microscopic video data
The probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter from the theory of random finite sets is a well-known method for multitarget tracking. We present the Gaussian mixture (GM) and improved sequential Monte Carlo implementations of the PHD filter for visual tracking. These implementations are shown to provide advantages over previous PHD filter implementations on visual data by removing complications such as clustering and data association and also having beneficial computational characteristics. The GM-PHD filter is deployed on microscopic visual data to extract trajectories of free-swimming bacteria in order to analyze their motion. Using this method, a significantly larger number of tracks are obtained than was previously possible. This permits calculation of reliable distributions for parameters of bacterial motion. The PHD filter output was tested by checking agreement with a careful manual analysis. A comparison between the PHD filter and alternative tracking methods was carried out using simulated data, demonstrating superior performance by the PHD filter in a range of realistic scenarios
Real-time event-based unsupervised feature consolidation and tracking for space situational awareness
Earth orbit is a limited natural resource that hosts a vast range of vital space-based systems that support the international community's national, commercial and defence interests. This resource is rapidly becoming depleted with over-crowding in high demand orbital slots and a growing presence of space debris. We propose the Fast Iterative Extraction of Salient targets for Tracking Asynchronously (FIESTA) algorithm as a robust, real-time and reactive approach to optical Space Situational Awareness (SSA) using Event-Based Cameras (EBCs) to detect, localize, and track Resident Space Objects (RSOs) accurately and timely. We address the challenges of the asynchronous nature and high temporal resolution output of the EBC accurately, unsupervised and with few tune-able parameters using concepts established in the neuromorphic and conventional tracking literature. We show this algorithm is capable of highly accurate in-frame RSO velocity estimation and average sub-pixel localization in a simulated test environment to distinguish the capabilities of the EBC and optical setup from the proposed tracking system. This work is a fundamental step toward accurate end-to-end real-time optical event-based SSA, and developing the foundation for robust closed-form tracking evaluated using standardized tracking metrics
Multitarget tracking and terrain-aided navigation using square-root consider filters
Filtering is a term used to describe methods that estimate the values of partially observed states, such as the position, velocity, and attitude of a vehicle, using current observations that are corrupted due to various sources, such as measurement noise, transmission dropouts, and spurious information. The study of filtering has been an active focus of research for decades, and the resulting filters have been the cornerstone of many of humankind\u27s greatest technological achievements. However, these achievements are enabled principally by the use of specialized techniques that seek to, in some way, combat the negative impacts that processor roundoff and truncation error have on filtering.
Two of these specialized techniques are known as square-root filters and consider filters. The former alleviates the fragility induced from estimating error covariance matrices by, instead, managing a factorized representation of that matrix, known as a square-root factor. The latter chooses to account for the statistical impacts a troublesome system parameter has on the overall state estimate without directly estimating it, and the result is a substantial reduction in numerical sensitivity to errors in that parameter. While both of these techniques have found widespread use in practical application, they have never been unified in a common square-root consider framework. Furthermore, consider filters are historically rooted to standard, vector-valued estimation techniques, and they have yet to be generalized to the emerging, set-valued estimation tools for multitarget tracking.
In this dissertation, formulae for the square-root consider filter are derived, and the result is extended to finite set statistics-based multitarget tracking tools. These results are used to propose a terrain-aided navigation concept wherein data regarding a vehicle\u27s environment is used to improve its state estimate, and square-root consider techniques provide the numerical stability necessary for an onboard navigation application. The newly developed square-root consider techniques are shown to be much more stable than standard formulations, and the terrain-aided navigation concept is applied to a lunar landing scenario to illustrate its applicability to navigating in challenging environments --Abstract, page iii
Data Imputation through the Identification of Local Anomalies
We introduce a comprehensive and statistical framework in a model free
setting for a complete treatment of localized data corruptions due to severe
noise sources, e.g., an occluder in the case of a visual recording. Within this
framework, we propose i) a novel algorithm to efficiently separate, i.e.,
detect and localize, possible corruptions from a given suspicious data instance
and ii) a Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) estimator to impute the corrupted data. As
a generalization to Euclidean distance, we also propose a novel distance
measure, which is based on the ranked deviations among the data attributes and
empirically shown to be superior in separating the corruptions. Our algorithm
first splits the suspicious instance into parts through a binary partitioning
tree in the space of data attributes and iteratively tests those parts to
detect local anomalies using the nominal statistics extracted from an
uncorrupted (clean) reference data set. Once each part is labeled as anomalous
vs normal, the corresponding binary patterns over this tree that characterize
corruptions are identified and the affected attributes are imputed. Under a
certain conditional independency structure assumed for the binary patterns, we
analytically show that the false alarm rate of the introduced algorithm in
detecting the corruptions is independent of the data and can be directly set
without any parameter tuning. The proposed framework is tested over several
well-known machine learning data sets with synthetically generated corruptions;
and experimentally shown to produce remarkable improvements in terms of
classification purposes with strong corruption separation capabilities. Our
experiments also indicate that the proposed algorithms outperform the typical
approaches and are robust to varying training phase conditions
Tracking Target Signal Strengths on a Grid using Sparsity
Multi-target tracking is mainly challenged by the nonlinearity present in the
measurement equation, and the difficulty in fast and accurate data association.
To overcome these challenges, the present paper introduces a grid-based model
in which the state captures target signal strengths on a known spatial grid
(TSSG). This model leads to \emph{linear} state and measurement equations,
which bypass data association and can afford state estimation via
sparsity-aware Kalman filtering (KF). Leveraging the grid-induced sparsity of
the novel model, two types of sparsity-cognizant TSSG-KF trackers are
developed: one effects sparsity through -norm regularization, and the
other invokes sparsity as an extra measurement. Iterative extended KF and
Gauss-Newton algorithms are developed for reduced-complexity tracking, along
with accurate error covariance updates for assessing performance of the
resultant sparsity-aware state estimators. Based on TSSG state estimates, more
informative target position and track estimates can be obtained in a follow-up
step, ensuring that track association and position estimation errors do not
propagate back into TSSG state estimates. The novel TSSG trackers do not
require knowing the number of targets or their signal strengths, and exhibit
considerably lower complexity than the benchmark hidden Markov model filter,
especially for a large number of targets. Numerical simulations demonstrate
that sparsity-cognizant trackers enjoy improved root mean-square error
performance at reduced complexity when compared to their sparsity-agnostic
counterparts.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Trans. on Signal Processin
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