Tracking system performance assessment

This paper defines an approach to evaluate automatic target tracking system performance against 15 metrics. These metrics are grouped in the categories of track establishment, track maintenance, track error and false tracks. Performance for each metric is expressed as a probability and these are weighted and combined to give an overall measure of performance. The data for this assessment process comes from comparing the tracking system output with tracks in a truth file. This comparison produces a results file for each tracking system and data set. The results file is combined over multiple data sets to form a single file for each tracking system which is the source data to assess tracking performance. This approach is embodied in a Tracker Assessment Tool (TAT) which is described with an example of using it to compare alternative Over-the-Horizon Radar (OTHR) tracking systems.

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