A track-before-detect algorithm for UWB radar sensor networks

• Published in: Signal processing Vol. 189; p. 108257
• Main Authors: Yan, Bo, Giorgetti, Andrea, Paolini, Enrico
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.12.2021
• Subjects: Radar sensor network; Track-before-detect; UWB radar; Weak target; Track-before-detect; Radar sensor network; Weak target; UWB radar
• ISSN: 0165-1684; 1872-7557; 1872-7557
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sigpro.2021.108257

•The most recent literature on TBD methods has been added in the introduction to make the literature review more comprehensive. The following references have been included in the revised manuscript: [12,13,21,23,36–41].•To better emphasize the uniqueness of our methodology, in the revised manuscript we added some explaination depicting the rationale behind the existing solutions.•We summarized all the parameters in Table I, along with a brief description of each parameter and its influence on the processing performance.•We added new Monte Carlo simulations for both monostatic and multistatic sensor networks to extend the previous results based on measurements.•We compared our solution with two state-of-the-art methods present in the literature using both Monte Carlo simulation and experimental results. Precise localization and tracking of moving non-collaborative persons and objects using a network of ultra-wideband (UWB) radar nodes has been shown to represent a practical and effective approach. In UWB radar sensor networks (RSNs), existence of strong clutter, weak target echoes, and closely spaced targets are obstacles to achieving a satisfactory tracking performance. Using a track-before-detect (TBD) approach, the waveform obtained by each node during a time period are jointly processed. Both spatial information and temporal relationship between measurements are exploited in generating all possible candidate trajectories and only the best trajectories are selected as the outcome. The effectiveness of the developed TBD technique for UWB RSNs is confirmed by numerical simulations and by two experimental results, both carried out with actual UWB signals. In the first experiment, a human target is tracked by a monostatic radar network with an average localization error of 41.9 cm with no false alarm trajectory in a cluttered outdoor environment. In the second experiment, two targets are detected by a multistatic radar network with localization errors of 25.4 cm and 19.7 cm, a detection rate of the two targets of 88.75%, and no false alarm trajectory.