Automatic global radar/IR/ESM track association based on ranked candidate pairings and measures of their proximity
AssigneeHughes Aircraft Company
InventorsJohn T. Fagarasan, Stephen W. Alland, Ronald J. Jakaub
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Abstract
A tri-sensor track association based on ranked candidate pairs and measures of their proximity is described. The track association employs a three dimensional assignment scheme, simple enough to be implemented in real-time, which preserves the most accurate pairwise links of the highest ranked pairs, requires at least two pairwise links for any tri-sensor global track association, and minimizes the time average statistical bearing displacement between associated tracks.
Claims8
A method for performing global association processing of the respective radar, infrared (IR) and electronic support measures (ESM) tracks from a tri-sensor system providing such radar, IR and ESM tracks, and wherein the sensor system provides (i) for each IR track, a radar/IR (R/I) positional association (PA) list and an association candidate list (ACL) subset of the PA list, the PA list consisting of radar tracks each having an R/I bearing history figure of merit measuring the radar track's historical angular proximity to the IR track, the ACL ranked by an R/I discrepancy figure of merit, with the smallest discrepancy yielding the highest rank, wherein each IR track is linked to the highest ranked radar track in its R/I ACL, (ii) for each ESM track, a radar/ESM (R/E) positional association (PA) list and an association candidate list (ACL) subset of the PA list, the PA list consisting of radar tracks each having an R/E bearing history figure of merit measuring the radar track's historical angular proximity to the ESM track, the ACL ranked by an R/E discrepancy figure of merit, with the smallest discrepancy yielding the highest rank, wherein each ESM track is linked to the highest ranked radar track in its R/E ACL, and (iii) for each ESM track, an IR/ESM (I/E) positional association (PA) list and an association candidate list (ACL) subset of the PA list, the PA list consisting of radar tracks each having an I/E bearing history figure of merit measuring the IR track's historical angular proximity to the ESM track, the ACL ranked by an R/I discrepancy figure of merit, with the smallest discrepancy yielding the highest rank, wherein each ESM track is linked to the highest ranked IR track in its I/E ACL, the method including the steps of:
- (a) for each radar track R having IR track links, forming a strong global track germ (GTG) consisting of the radar track R and all IR tracks linked to it;
- (b) for each radar track with no IR tracks linked to it, forming a weak radar GTG consisting of that radar track;
- (c) for each IR track with no radar track linked to it, forming a weak IR GTG consisting of that IR track;
- (d) for each ESM track defining a list of strong GTG's eligible for association with that ESM track;
- (e) for each ESM track defining a list of weak GTG's eligible for association with that ESM track;
- (f) globally associating each ESM track with the eligible strong GTG of smallest bearing displacement from the ESM track, if any;
- (g) if no strong GTG is eligible of association with a particular ESM track, globally associating that ESM track with the best choice weak GTG, if any;
- and
- (h) for each ESM track which does not associate with any GTG, declaring that ESM track not globally associated with any other tracks.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.