Multitarget Tracking With Multiscan Knowledge Exploitation Using Sequential MCMC Sampling

Exploitation of external knowledge through constrained filtering guarantees improved performance. In this paper we show how multiscan processing of such information further enhances the track accuracy. This can be achieved using a Fixed-Lag Smoothing procedure, and a proof of improvement is given in terms of entropy reduction. Such multiscan algorithm, i.e., named KB-Smoother (“Fixed-lag smoothing for Bayes optimal exploitation of external knowledge,” F. Papi , Proc. 15th Int. Conf. Inf. Fusion, 2012) can be implemented by means of a SIR-PF. In practice, the SIR-PF suffers from depletion problems, which are further amplified by the Smoothing technique. Sequential MCMC methods represent an efficient alternative to the standard SIR-PF approach. Furthermore, by borrowing techniques from genetic algorithms, a fully parallelizable multitarget tracker can be defined. Such approach, i.e., named Interacting Population (IP)-MCMC-PF, was first introduced in “Multitarget tracking with interacting population-based MCMC-PF” (M Bocquel , Proc. 15th Int. Conf. Inf. Fusion, 2012). In this paper, we propose and analyze a combination of the KB-Smoother along with the IP-MCMC-PF. As will be shown, the combination of the two methods yields an improved track accuracy while mitigating the loss of particles diversity. Simulation analyses for single and multitarget tracking scenarios confirm the benefits of the proposed approach.