2D rigid-body target modelling for tracking and identification with GMTI/HRR measurements

Joint ground moving-target tracking identification is a crucial task in a modem combat operation. Due to the entirely different environment, ground moving-target tracking is quite different from airborne target tracking. A major difference lies in target modelling. In airborne target tracking, a target is usually treated as a point, while for ground target tracking, a target is considered a rigid body. Two approaches for 2D rigid-body target modelling are proposed. Equipped with ground moving-target indicator and high-resolution range sensors, the new approaches effectively explore the concepts of local and global motions of a rigid body. The kinematics of a global motion is described by a constant acceleration model, and a local motion is modelled by the pivoting centre and pseudocentre approaches. The proposed models are implemented by the extended Kalman filter with and without a probabilistic data association filter. The simulation results show that the proposed approaches not only correctly track a rigid-body target in a complicated scenario but also simultaneously report its structural information.