N-body filtering for road tracking using a car following model

Filtering for each track is performed independent of other tracks in conventional multi-target tracking algorithms. However, vehicles on roads follow inter-vehicle constraints and road constraints. Therefore, conventional tracking algorithms can produce many unrealistic results when applied to vehicles moving on roads. We present a new filtering algorithm, which enforces the inter-vehicle distance constraint to a group of N vehicles moving along a single lane of a road, using a car following model. Our filtering algorithm uses the interacting multiple model estimator to model the motion of maneuvering vehicles and enforces the inter-vehicle driving distance constraint among N vehicles. For testing and validating our algorithm, we use the US Highway 101 trajectory data, which is regarded as a benchmark data set for traffic flow theory.