An Optimal Plot-to-Track Association Method Based on JVC Algorithm for Maritime Target with Compact HFSWR

The compact High-Frequency Surface Wave Radar (HFSWR) has low spatial resolution for target detection due to its reduced aperture of the receiving antenna array. The sequential plot-to-track association method used in multi-target tracking algorithms is prone to erroneous association, which easily leads to track fragmentation and false tracking. In order to solve this problem, regarding the multi-target plot-to-track association as an optimal allocation problem, an optimal multi-target plot-to-track association method based on JVC (Jonker-Volgenant-Castanon) algorithm is proposed. For multiple tracks with common candidate plots in their overlapped association gate, firstly, the similarity between their candidate plots and all tracks is calculated using the minimal cost function with target Doppler velocity, range and azimuth as parameters and an association cost matrix is formed. Then, the optimal association result is achieved by minimizing the total association cost using the JVC algorithm. Both simulation and field target data were used to carry out the plot-to-track association experiment, and the association results are compared with the sequential nearest neighbor association method. The experimental results show that the track length obtained by the proposed method is superior to that of the sequential nearest neighbor method, thus the track continuity is improved.