A novel state transition and data association scheme suitable for asynchronous radar and infrared sensors

Aim of this paper is proposing a novel and practical state transition and data association scheme, which could deal with asynchronous but in sequence measurements from different kinds of sensors carried by one platform. The scheme involves the design of combinatorial state, the corresponding state type switch model and a multi-layer data association technique. Based on this scheme, not only could the asynchronous and heterogeneous measurements be processed centrally and optimally, but also the tracking of targets kinematic states in Cartesian coordinate by infrared sensors at the aid of sparse radar measurements becomes possible. Monte Carlo simulation results show the effectiveness of this scheme.