An analysis of the single sensor bearings-only tracking problem

In this paper we examine the single sensor, bearings-only target tracking problem. This problem is known to be difficult due to the potential unobservability of elements of the target’s state and the high degree of nonlinearity in the measurement process. We compare the performance of three different tracking algorithms. The algorithms are of varying degrees of computational complexity. The results of these comparisons can be used to gain insight into the degree of difficulty caused by each of these two issues. The understanding this provides can aid in the selection of an appropriate target tracking filter for a given application.