Evaluation of multiple target track initiation techniques in real radar tracking environments

The authors analyse the performance of track initiation techniques in a real radar multiple target tracking environment. The track initiation problem is considered as a problem of detection, and the performance is evaluated using the receiver operating characteristics (ROC). Four track initiation techniques, namely the heuristic rule method, the logic-based method, the Hough transform approach and the modified Hough transform method, are considered. The first two methods are sequential and the last two are batch techniques, which are the two major categories of track initiation methods. Different radar tracking data sets based on commercial and military aircrafts in various conditions were collected. The effect of the number of radar scans used to initiate a track, the effect of the initiation method to a tracker and the comparison of the four track initiation methods are analysed to understand the practicalities of these track initiation techniques