Filter re-start strategy for angle-only tracking of a highly manoeuvrable target considering the target's destination information

Abstract

This study handles the three-dimensional (3D) angle-only tracking (AOT) problem, which is calculating the target's location and velocity by measuring the target's elevation and azimuth angle. Nowadays, a non-civilian (unmanned) aircraft can accelerate in an unpredictable manner. This study presents a stochastic filter re-start strategy for tracking a target which can abruptly change its velocity in any 3D directions. Moreover, this study assumes that the target's destination information is known a priori. Using the target destination information, the authors can improve the filter accuracy as well as the time efficiency. As far as they know, this study is novel in using the target's destination information for manoeuvring target tracking in 3D AOT problem. The performance of the proposed stochastic filter re-start strategy based on the target's destination information is verified under MATLAB simulations.