Grid-based target estimation scheme for passive coherent location system

Abstract

In this paper, two dimensional (2D) target location is estimated in the passive coherent location (PCL) system in noisy and cluttered environment. Compared to the conventional filter based target estimation schemes that require a prior information of target dynamics, the proposed target estimation scheme does not require that information and can track a target with various movements, such as maneuvering or non-maneuvering target, using a grid point (GP)-based estimation method. Bistatic range sum (BRS) measurements from all receivers are combined and processed for target estimation, but some of them are reflected by clutters rather than a target, degrading estimation accuracy. To tackle this problem, the proposed scheme first eliminates âfalseâ clutter-reflected BRS measurements by taking multiple time measurements into account. Then, a successive GP update scheme is applied for the remaining sets of BRS measurement, and candidate target locations are determined as a result. In the last step, a soft decision method is applied to determine the target location from the candidates. Simulation results show that our proposed target estimation scheme can track a target with various movements, especially highly-maneuvering target, despite the lack of prior knowledge of target dynamics.