Title: Sensor selection for optimal target tracking in sensor networks

Authors: Umesh D. Ramdaras, Frans G.J. Absil, Piet Van Genderen

Addresses: Combat Systems Department, Netherlands Defence Academy, Het Nieuwe Diep 8, 1781 AC Den Helder, The Netherlands; International Research Centre for Telecommunications and Radar, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands. ' Combat Systems Department, Netherlands Defence Academy, Het Nieuwe Diep 8, 1781 AC Den Helder, The Netherlands. ' International Research Centre for Telecommunications and Radar, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands

Abstract: To realise the capability of the network centric warfare (NCW) systems concept, the coordination between various sensor platforms (e.g., naval units, combat aircrafts, helicopters or unmanned aerial systems) will have to be increased and cross-platform sensor management (SM) will be applied. The sensor selection process, as part of SM, serves to find the appropriate sensor for doing an observation. With a properly working selection process, sensor deployment can be optimised for the entire sensor network. This paper presents a sensor selection algorithm (SSA) for a radar target tracking scenario. It is based on the expected performance, computed with the modified Riccati equation. The particle filtering technique is used for target tracking. The SSA takes limited detection probability into account and various expected performance criteria. Scenarios for two non-moving co-located radar systems and three simple target trajectories are simulated to validate the sensor selection strategy and demonstrate the tracking algorithm performance.

Keywords: sensor selection; radar tracking; target tracking; expected performance; modified Riccati equation; MRE; particle filters; sensor networks; network centric warfare; cross-platform sensor management; sensor deployment; optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIDSS.2011.039549

International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems, 2011 Vol.4 No.2, pp.187 - 207

Published online: 28 Feb 2015 *

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