Advances on tracking of extended objects and group targets using random matrices

The task of tracking extended objects or (partly) unresolvable group targets raises new challenges for both data association and track maintenance. Due to limited sensor resolution capabilities, group targets (i. e., a number of closely spaced targets moving in a coordinated fashion) may show a similar detection pattern as extended objects, namely a varying number of detections whose spread is determined by both the statistical sensor errors as well as the physical extension of the group or extended object. Different tracking approaches treating these situations have been proposed where physical extension is represented by a random symmetric positive definite matrix. This paper discusses some results that should give deeper insight into behavior and performance analysis of these approaches. Further improvements are presented.