Tracking with debiased consistent converted measurements versus EKF

Abstract

In tracking applications target motion is usually best modeled in a simple fashion using Cartesian coordinates. Unfortunately, in most systems the target position measurements are provided in terms of range and azimuth (bearing) with respect to the sensor location. This situation requires either converting the measurements to a Cartesian frame of reference and working directly on converted measurements or using an extended Kalman filter (EKF) in mixed coordinates. An accurate means of tracking with debiased consistent converted measurements which accounts for the sensor inaccuracies over all practical geometries and accuracies is presented. This method is compared with the mixed coordinates EKF approach as well as a previous converted measurement approach which is an acceptable approximation only for moderate cross-range errors. The new approach is shown to be more accurate in terms of position and velocity errors and provides consistent estimates (i.e., compatible with the filter calculated covariances) for all practical situations. The combination of parameters (range, range accuracy, and azimuth accuracy) for which debiasing is needed is presented in explicit form.