A two-stage gating algorithm for joint probability data association filter

Gating techniques for maneuvering target tracking using a joint probability data association filter (JPDAF) are considered in this paper. A way of estimating the gate size via the performance of the data association filter has been proposed recently, by which the gate size can be estimated by looking for the optimal performance of the data association filter. Combining the elliptic tracking gate with the direction tracking gate, a modified performance estimation function was proposed. As a feasible implementation, a suboptimal two-stage gating algorithm has been proposed also. Simulation results show that the suboptimal algorithm can offer advantages of decreasing the number of the feasible association events and reducing the calculation load of JPDAF, especially in a heavy clutter and/or false alarm environment.