Standalone Multiscan Pre-Filter System for Radar Data

In surveillance platforms such as the E-2, it is essential that the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) radar provide an accurate track picture of the surveillance region. Estimates of position and heading are important, but more critical is the maintenance of continuous tracks through clutter, target maneuvers, and other challenging scenarios. Thus, pre-filter techniques that can improve tracking performance relative to breaks and swaps, and can reduce the computational loading on the tracking system, are critical to the overall AEW system mission performance. The fundamental objective of this research program is to develop a multiscan pre-filter algorithm that reduces the amount of non-target measurements passed to the tracker while maximizing the number of target-oriented measurements that are passed to the tracker. The multiscan pre-filter operates using efficient (computationally cheap) methods to identify measurements that could feasibly associate together to form a target track before passing the data to the tracker where more expensive association techniques are employed.