Knowledge assistance for ground target tracking and resource management

Tracking slow moving ground targets from airborne phased array radar is a challenging task. Some of the major issues are heading accuracy of slow moving target and radar resource management in clutter regions. In this paper, we propose a novel tracking framework using digital map and clutter knowledge bases to efficiently track the ground moving target using airborne phased array radar. The proposed technique uses offline processed digital map for fast retrieval of road parameters. Also, the proposed radar data processor provides feedback to populate and update the clutter knowledge-base. A fast yet robust method is employed for ground mapping of targets and to detect map features such as road junctions. Experimental results show (i) the robustness of the map knowledge assisted tracking approach when target moves along different kinds of path (i.e. on/off the road) (ii) better heading accuracies achieved by knowledge assistance and (iii) radar resource management in clutter region with knowledge-base.