Sequential monte carlo implementation of the phd filter for multi-target tracking

Random finite sets are natural represen- tations of multi-target states and observations that al- low multi-sensor multi-target tmcking to fit in the uni- fying random set framework for Data fision. Although a rigorous foundation has been developed in the form of Finite Set Statistics, optimal Bayesian multi-target filtering is not yet practical. Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) approzimations of the optimal filter are compu- tationally ezpensive. A practical altemative to the opti- mal filter is the Probability Hypothesis Density (PHD) filter, which propagates the PHD or first moment in- stead of the full multi-target posterior. The propagation of the PHD involves multiple integrals which do not ad- mit closed form. We propose to approzimate the PHD by a set of weighted random samples which are propa- gated over time using a generalised SMC method. The resulting algorithm is very attractive as it is general enough to handle non-linear non-Gaussian dynamics and the computational complezity is independent of the (time-varying) number of targets.