Distributed Fusion With Multi-Bernoulli Filter Based on Generalized Covariance Intersection

In this paper, we propose a distributed multiobject tracking algorithm through the use of multi-Bernoulli (MB) filter based on generalized covariance intersection (G-CI). Our analyses show that the G-CI fusion with two MB posterior distributions does not admit an accurate closed-form expression. To solve this problem, we first approximate the fused posterior as the unlabeled version of δ-generalized labeled MB distribution, referred to as generalized MB (GMB) distribution. Then, to allow the subsequent fusion with another MB posterior distribution, e.g., fusion with a third sensor node in the sensor network, or fusion in the feedback working mode, we further approximate the fused GMB posterior distribution as an MB distribution which matches its first-order statistical moment. The proposed fusion algorithm is implemented using sequential Monte Carlo technique and its performance is highlighted by numerical results.