Abstract
An important problem in surveillance and reconnaissance systems is the tracking of multiple moving targets in cluttered noise environments using outputs from a number of sensors possessing wide variations in individual characteristics and accuracies. A number of approaches have been proposed for this multitarget/multisensor tracking problem ranging from reasonably simple, though ad hoc, schemes to fairly complex, but theoretically optimum, approaches. In this paper, we describe an iterative procedure for time-recursive multitarget/multisensor tracking based on use of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. More specifically, we pose the multitarget/multisensor tracking problem as an incomplete data problem with the observable sensor outputs representing the incomplete data, whereas the target-associated sensor outputs constitute the complete data. Target updates at each time use an EM-based approach that calculates the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of the target states, under the assumption of appropriate motion models, based on the outputs of disparate sensors. The approach uses a Markov random field (MRF) model of the associations between observations and targets and allows for estimation of joint association probabilities without explicit enumeration. The advantage of this EM-based approach is that it provides a computationally efficient means for approaching the performance offered by theoretically optimum approaches that use explicit enumeration of the joint association probabilities. We provide selected results illustrating the performance/complexity characteristics of this EM-based approach compared with competing schemes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 115-129 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1 1998 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Signal Processing
Cite this
application of the em algorithm for the multitarget/multisensor tracking problem. / Molnar, K. J.; Modestino, J. W.
In: IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 46, No. 1, 01.12.1998, p. 115-129.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - application of the em algorithm for the multitarget/multisensor tracking problem
AU - Molnar, K. J.
AU - Modestino, J. W.
PY - 1998/12/1
Y1 - 1998/12/1
N2 - An important problem in surveillance and reconnaissance systems is the tracking of multiple moving targets in cluttered noise environments using outputs from a number of sensors possessing wide variations in individual characteristics and accuracies. A number of approaches have been proposed for this multitarget/multisensor tracking problem ranging from reasonably simple, though ad hoc, schemes to fairly complex, but theoretically optimum, approaches. In this paper, we describe an iterative procedure for time-recursive multitarget/multisensor tracking based on use of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. More specifically, we pose the multitarget/multisensor tracking problem as an incomplete data problem with the observable sensor outputs representing the incomplete data, whereas the target-associated sensor outputs constitute the complete data. Target updates at each time use an EM-based approach that calculates the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of the target states, under the assumption of appropriate motion models, based on the outputs of disparate sensors. The approach uses a Markov random field (MRF) model of the associations between observations and targets and allows for estimation of joint association probabilities without explicit enumeration. The advantage of this EM-based approach is that it provides a computationally efficient means for approaching the performance offered by theoretically optimum approaches that use explicit enumeration of the joint association probabilities. We provide selected results illustrating the performance/complexity characteristics of this EM-based approach compared with competing schemes.
AB - An important problem in surveillance and reconnaissance systems is the tracking of multiple moving targets in cluttered noise environments using outputs from a number of sensors possessing wide variations in individual characteristics and accuracies. A number of approaches have been proposed for this multitarget/multisensor tracking problem ranging from reasonably simple, though ad hoc, schemes to fairly complex, but theoretically optimum, approaches. In this paper, we describe an iterative procedure for time-recursive multitarget/multisensor tracking based on use of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. More specifically, we pose the multitarget/multisensor tracking problem as an incomplete data problem with the observable sensor outputs representing the incomplete data, whereas the target-associated sensor outputs constitute the complete data. Target updates at each time use an EM-based approach that calculates the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of the target states, under the assumption of appropriate motion models, based on the outputs of disparate sensors. The approach uses a Markov random field (MRF) model of the associations between observations and targets and allows for estimation of joint association probabilities without explicit enumeration. The advantage of this EM-based approach is that it provides a computationally efficient means for approaching the performance offered by theoretically optimum approaches that use explicit enumeration of the joint association probabilities. We provide selected results illustrating the performance/complexity characteristics of this EM-based approach compared with competing schemes.
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U2 - 10.1109/78.651193
DO - 10.1109/78.651193
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0031678885
VL - 46
SP - 115
EP - 129
JO - IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
JF - IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
SN - 1053-587X
IS - 1
ER -