Clutter rejection by clustering likelihood-based similarities

We implement and evaluate a likelihood-based method to cluster contacts in a multistatic active sonar setting. The underlying assumption is that a true contact will be detected by multiple receivers and any aspect-dependent feature must be consistent across all contacts in a cluster. Contacts which are contained in the same cluster can be appropriately fused and passed into a tracker. Clutter contacts detected are rejected if they are not in a cluster with any other possible objects. The use of the aspect dependent features Doppler and target strength allows for improved rejection of clutter. We show that clutter can be rejected with minimal false negatives.