The Gaussian mixture MCMC particle algorithm for dynamic cluster tracking

We present a new filtering algorithm for tracking multiple clusters of coordinated targets. Based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) mechanism, the new algorithm propagates a discrete approximation of the underlying filtering density. A dynamic Gaussian mixture model is utilized for representing the time-varying clustering structure. This involves point process formulations of typical behavioral moves such as birth and death of clusters as well as merging and splitting. Following our previous work, we adopt here two strategies for increasing the sampling efficiency of the basic MCMC scheme: an evolutionary stage which allows improved exploration of the sample space, and an EM-based method for making optimized proposals based on the frame likelihood. The algorithm's performance is assessed and demonstrated in both synthetic and real tracking scenarios.