Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

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Vol. 7 Issue 01, January-2018

Implementation of Embedded Multi target Tracking System

Algorithm for Active Phased Array Radar
M.C.Narasimhamurthy*(1) Dr.G.V.Jayaramaiah ( 2)
LRDE, DRDO, Ministry of Defence Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engg
Government of India, Bengaluru, India Dr AIT, Mallathahalli, Bengaluru, India

Abstract - Multi Target Tracking Systems not only recognize the coefficients in the formation of a weighted average
presence of the target, but it determines the targets location in computational measurements for updating each instance.
range and in one or two angle coordinates. As it continues to The computation is done by developing suitable
observe the target the radar can provide target track and predict algorithms for data association and filtering for multiple and
where target will be in the future. Prediction of the future
position of the target will be useful for verity of purposes like
diverse target tracking. It involves Software design. For
guidance, navigation etc. An accurate estimation of target software design Mat lab is used.
parameters and prediction of the target future location can be
achieved by suitable processing of the received signal. Data I. TRACKING SYSTEM
processing is done by implementation of sophisticated algorithms. Tracking Radars
Kalman Filter algorithm and Joint probabilistic data association The tracking radar system estimates the coordinate
algorithm are implemented to track the target in multi-cluttered distance of the object/target and provides reception data to the
environment. Algorithms of this kind are designed and developed processor which may be used to estimate target path/location
to track multi-targets with all possibilities thus yielding efficient and to predict its future traversal path. Major feature which
and reliable system.
distinguishes it from other radar is method by which angle
Index Terms— Kalman Filter, Data Filtering, Data Association tracking is accomplished. Tracking radars may be classified
into two types:-
I. INTRODUCTION
RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging) is an a) Continuous tracking radar: This proposed system supplies
electromagnetic system for location and detection of reflecting continuous and concurrent tracking data on a targeted object.
objects like aircraft, ships spacecraft, people, vehicles and the b) Tracks while radar scan: This system provides
natural environment. It functions by emitting radiation into the computational data on multiple diverse targets.
open space and detecting the echo signals reflected from a In general, both systems deploy unique type of equipment’s.
target. The reflected echo energy that is returned to the Radar The antenna beam in continuous radar is positioned by an
receiver not only indicates the presence of a target, but by angle by servo-mechanism and it is actuated by an error signal.
comparing the received echo signal with the signal that was The various methods for generating error angle maybe
transmitted, its location can be determined along with other differentiated as conical scan, sequential lobing and
target-related information. monopulse or simultaneous lobing.
In Radar Data Processing (RDP) is a subsystem. It is When a tracking mode is enabled in the radar, it does
a real time multi-tasking program consisting of a set of not have knowledge of other potential targets. Each time a
computer algorithms to utilize and process the radar radar scans past a target, its coordinate estimates can be
measurements and automatically track the dynamics of one or obtained for further computation. If the change in target
more targets. Radar data processor (RDP) does Track While coordinates between each scan is not too large, so it makes
Scan (TWS) processing for multiple target tracking. Based on possible to reconstruct the trail of target from the received
the data received via receiver/processor the objects next computed data. When the traffic is so dense the operator
progression/position of the target is calculated. cannot keep track of information from radar, trajectory of the
A tracking system problem can be divided into two target may be automatically processed by using computational
problems, namely Data Filtering and association. It is assumed system. Such processing is called ADT (automatic detection
that the Filter is receiving the signal distance in constant and and track).
discrete time periods. Approximation is performed by the An angular sector radar the provides target track is sometimes
Filter to obtain the target’s actual position from called track while scan radar. This terminology also applied to
these noisy measurements. In process to obtain the radars that scan a limited angular sector to provide tracking
approximation, some prefixation of system is frequently information at a high data rate on a particular target within its
presumed. Hence, the first problem relates to the selection of a field of view. Missile control radars are of this type.
specific Filter that can relate with most of the consequence in
model where it is planned to be implemented. Introduction To Tracking and Data Association
The ethos of Data association is the mathematical Tracking is a process of computing measurements obtained
calculation of association for all instance with entire from a target object in succession to sustain an evaluate from
computational measurements in the current scan bound, and its current state, which typically consists system components
the concurrent use of those probabilities as weighting such as radiated signal strength, spectral characteristics etc.

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Vol. 7 Issue 01, January-2018

Constantly and significantly varying parameters such as relates with most of the issues in the application wherein it is
coupling coefficients, propagation velocity. intended to be implemented.
Measurements are corrupted-noise records related to a target, Data processed from JDPA(Data Association) and
such as Kalman Filter are effectively used to track multi-targets
1. Straight estimation of target’s position. efficiently. Radar Data Processor (RDP) uses the measurement
2. Field range and azimuth angle from a sensor. sequence over successive scans to recursively estimate the
3. Difference in time of arrival i.e., obtained by cross- target position and velocity.
correlating data between two sensors. a) General information of kalman filter
4. Distinct frequency from narrow-band signal reflected by the The Kalman Filter consist of two significant steps:
target. 1. Prediction.
5. Observed frequency difference which may be caused due to 2. Updation or Correction.
Doppler shift effect occuring two sensors in the system In the initial phase, state is predicted with dynamic model and
environmnet. later in second phase, it is updated/corrected with observation
6. Also depends on the Signal strength. model, this results in minimization of error covariance, which
is an optimal estimator. This process is repeated each time in
each phase with the state of previous time step considered as
initial value for computation in next instance hence, Kalman
filter is called recursive filter.

Figure: 1.1 components of typical tracking system

Figure: 1.3 Recursive process in Kalman Filter
A trail path is a trajectory state computed from a set of The Kalman filter consists of the components such as State
measurements that will be related to a particular target. The Vector, Dynamic Model and the Observation Model.
crux of the multitarget-tracking problem states to carry out this
data correlation process for coordinates whose origin is State Vector:
uncertain which may be caused due to:- The state vector contains the variable of interest. This
component describes the state of dynamic system and the
II.DESIGN OF MULTITARGET TRACKING SYSTEM
degree of freedom is also represented via the State vector. The
A simplified schematic of modern Tracking Radar is shown
elements in the state vector cannot be measured directly, but
below. Antenna receive energy from a particular direction.
they can be inferred from values that are measurable.
Pedestal moves the antenna through electro-mechanical means
Elements of state vector can be orientation angles, position,
to scan the beam across the search space in azimuth or
velocity and so on. The state vector contains two values which
elevation or both for tracking function. Radar Controller forms
is the a priori value- predicted value before update and a
the nodal control element of any radar system.
posteriori value- corrected value after update.
Dynamic Model:
This model enables to describe the transformation of the state
vector over time. It is fairly being represented by system with
distinct equations:
Figure: 1.2 Functions that comprise TWS System X (t1) = Fx (t1) +n (t1)
Wherein F relates to dynamic matrix and is constant, x (t1)
A tracking system ken can be divided into two main belonging to state vector and n(t1) characterized by dynamic
propositions such as:- noise that is usually assumed as white noise thus containing
1. Data Association. co-variance matrix Q(t1).
2. Data Filtering.
It is presumed that the coordinate measurements are passed OBSERVATION MODEL:
into the filter in a discrete, distinct and constant interval. This observation model represents the relationship between the
Target’s actual location/position can be state and the coordinate measurements. The vector form of this
estimated/approximated using a precise filter by utilizing the system is represented as:-
noisy measurements. Assorted system model is often assumed L (t1) = Hx (t1) +w (t1)
to obtain the coordinate approximates. As the target starts its Where L(t1) is an observation vector during discrete time steps
maneuver action, the filter starts to diverge to the target’s point t1, H belonging to observation matrix which being constant
of action. Due to the characteristics of the chosen model that and w(t1) being the noise of the measurement with co-variance
describes the target trajectory, it provides impossible matrix R(t1).
probability to expect that the corresponding filter will yield
correct estimates when the target model maneuver’s. Hence
the first problem related to the selection of a precise Filter that

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PREDICTION: Each of these above components are the vectors quantities thus
As the name suggests, prediction becomes the initial contains more than one element in the nature. The component
operational phase of Kalman Filter. By shirking the dynamic x contains all the data related to the current system state, to
noise and solving the differential equations describing the note x cannot be measured directly hence we measure
dynamic model thus enabling to calculate the predicted state, component y, which is a function of x that is corrupted by the
better than a priori state. The respective matrices equation noise z. As a part of cognition, we can use y to help us obtain
considered for Kalman Filter is mentioned below: an estimate of x, but we cannot necessarily take the
X_pred = A* X_filt information from y at face value because it is corrupted by
P_pred = A * P_filt * A’+Q noise. In the current scenario, elementary laws of physics
mention’s that the velocity v will be delegated using the below
CORRELATION: equation:
The two main functions of RDP are correlation and TSE.
Correlation is as important to RDP as filter process. The need Which means that the current velocity will be equal to the
for correlation process arises in a multitarget-tracking present velocity adding-up the commanded acceleration
environment, i.e. when the radar sends multiple reports
multiplied by T. But the previous equation does not give a
corresponding to closely spaced targets. In such a situation, it
precise value for vk+1. Instead, the velocity will be perturbed
will be very difficult to unambiguously pair each of the reports
by noise. Noise velocity being a random variable may get
to the track maintained by RDP, and one has to look for
changed along the time. So, the possible equation for v can be
optimal assignment solutions with a matrix of m row and n delegated as follows:
columns. Whatever may be the method employed, the
correlation, process should tell the filter process which report
is paired with the track. Obviously, a wrong correlation may Below equation shows the derivation for position p:
also contribute significantly to the build of large tracking
errors.
UPDATION/CORRELATION: Below equation x shows the state vector consisting of position
During the Updation Phase, the predicted state vector matrix and velocity:
(X) is significantly enhanced upon the inspections made at
each iterations of time step ‘t’.

K = P_pred* H’ (H * P_pred * H’+R)-1 Finally, knowing that the measured output is equal to the
P_filt = (1-K * H) * P_pred position, we can write our linear system equations as follows:
X_filt = X_pred + K (Z – H * X_pred)

In this phase, corrected value is predicted using the weight

combination of estimated state and coordinate measurements,
which means measurements weight will be high if the co- zk is noise measurement caused due to some particular cases
variance measurement value is much smaller than that of the such as instrumentation errors.
predicted state and the predicted states will be low. Hence this It needs to accurately estimate the state x thus accurately
helps in reduction of uncertainty in the model thus making it estimating the position of p and velocity v. suppose we have a
more reliable. linear system model as described previously. We want to use
Kalman Filter Algorithm the available measurements y to estimate the state of the
In general, Kalman filter is used to remove noise interference system x. We know how the system behaves according to the
from a signal, thus the measuring process must be delineated state equation, and we have measurements of the position, so
by linear system. By considering the discrete linear time how can we determine the best estimate of the state x. We
system, the state space is represented as below thus providing want an estimator that gives an accurate estimate of the true
a clear picture of the algorithm: state even though we cannot directly measure it. What criteria
State Space equation: should our estimator satisfy would be a question, but two
obvious requirements come to mind that being considered
Output equation: first, we want the average value of our state estimate to be
equal to the average value of the true state. That is, we don’t
want our estimate to be biased one way or another.
From the above equations A, B, and C are coordinate Mathematically, we would say that the expected value of the
measurement matrices, estimate should be equal to the expected value of the state.
k being the time index; Second, we want a state estimate that varies from the true state
x provides the state of the system; as little as possible. That is, not only do we want the average
u delivers the input to the system; of the state estimate to be equal to the average of the true state,
y helps in measuring the output of the system; but we also want an estimator that results in the smallest
w being the process noise and possible variation of the state estimate. Mathematically, we
z is acquired as the measurement noise. can state that we need to find the estimator with the smallest
possible error variance. It so happens that the Kalman filter is

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the estimator that satisfies these two criteria. But the Kalman illustrating, expounding differential equations, curve fitting
filter solution does not apply unless we can satisfy certain and Fast Fourier transform (FFT).
assumptions about the noise that affects our system. Graphics:-These demos illustrate graphics functions that create
Remember from our system model that w is the process noise 2-D and 3-D plots of data, and introduce visualization
and z is the measurement noise. We must assume that the techniques.
average value of w is zero and the average value of z is zero. MATLAB provides a high-level language and development
We must further assume that no correlation exists between w tools that let you quickly develop and analyze your algorithms
and z. That is, at any time k, wk, and zk are independent and applications.
random variables. Then the noise covariance matrices Sw and Development Tools:- Development tools help users implement
Sz are defined as: their algorithm efficiently. This tool kit includes the following
Noise Process Covariance: components:
MATLAB Editor:- Provides standard editing and debugging
Noise Measurement Covariance: features, such as setting break points and single stepping.
M-Lint Code Checker:- Enables the users to Analyzes the code
and suggests modifications to enhance its performance and
where wT and zT indicate the transpose of the w and z random
reliability.
noise vectors, and E(·) means the expected value.
MATLAB Profiler:- Provides the overall picture of the total
There are many alternative but equivalent where wT and zT
time spent while the system executing each line of code from
indicate the transpose of the w and z random noise vectors, and
the block.
E(·) means the expected value. There are many alternative but
Directory Reports:- Generates reports regarding the efficiency
equivalent ways to express the equations. One of the
of code, file disintegration, code debug, file dependency chain
formulations is given as follows:
and so on.
Toolboxes
These are specialized and dedicated MATLAB program file
container built particularly for solving specific block of
That’s the Kalman filter. It consists of three equations, each problems. Toolboxes are associated with fields such as
involving matrix manipulation. The K matrix is called the controls, signal processing system identification and so on[14].
Kalman gain, and the P matrix is called the estimation error
covariance. The state estimate ( ) equation is fairly intuitive.
The first term used to derive the state estimate at time k + 1 is
just A times the state estimate at time k, plus B times the
known input at time k. This would be the state estimate if we
didn’t have a measurement. In other words, the state estimate
would propagate in time just like the state vector in the system
model. The second term in the equation is called the correction
term and it represents the amount by which to correct the
propagated state estimate due to our measurement. Inspection Figure 1.5: Matlab flow chart radar data processing tool
of the K equation shows that if the measurement noise is large,
Sz will be large, so K will be small and we won’t give much MATLAB, version-7.7 is used as a tool to simulate the Multi
credibility to the measurement y when computing the next. On target tracking algorithms as it has all the above features
the other hand, if the measurement noise is small, Sz will be which are user friendly.
small, so K will be large, and we will give a lot of credibility III.GUI Model for multitarget tracking :
to the measurement when computing the next x.

Figure: 1.4 Overview of Kalman filter

Figure: 1.6 Graphical User Interface diagram of Multi target tracking system
Desktop Environment:- The MATLAB desktop is a graphical
user interface that transforms MATLAB into an integrated GUI is visually presented as a front end of the software
environment for exploration and development [14]. application. MATLAB toolbox contains functions for state
Matrices:- MATLAB functions with scalars, vectors, and estimation for linear systems. The toolbox will run under
matrices quantities. A scalar is just a one-by-one matrix, and a MATLAB version 7.7 and higher, and it is independent of
vector component is nothing, but a thin, long matrix other MATLAB toolboxes. All functions exist as m-files
represented as either a row or a column. To summarize, the purpose of this toolbox is to make implementations of
MATLAB basically works on matrix’s the Kalman filter and JPDA algorithms f o r multi target
Numeric’s:- This section contains some demos of numeric tracking. Two frames are used to group logically related
calculation in MATLAB. This numeric involves demos objects. One to group filter algorithms and the other is to

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group data association algorithms. Pop up menu contains the

list of tracking plot to be viewed. The desired plot is viewed
clicking the show plot button (push button) after selecting the
plot title in Popup menu.

Figure: 2.0 Position Measured Error

The above figure clearly shows different plots like True

position of the target, Position measured, Position estimated,
Figure: 1.7 Screen snapshot showing the list of plots True velocity of the target, Velocity estimated, Covariance
estimated, Position measured error, Position estimation error
and Velocity Estimation error. Different Plot are combined
into single subplot for easy analysis of the plots

Figure: 1.8 Screen snapshot showing the subplot

Figure: 2.1 Target Trajectories.

Figure: 1.9 Screen snapshot showing the true trajectories plot

Figure: 2.2 Target and its trail trajectories path

Using the perception of Joint probabilistic data association

algorithm and Kalman filter algorithm, enabled the design and
development of Multi-Target tracking system therefore
simulated with the use of MATLAB version 7.7. The plot
shows literal Trajectories, Measurement of the target objects
Figure: 2.0 Screen snapshot showing the estimated trajectories plot. and Estimated Target Trajectories.

IV. SIMULATION AND RESULTS V.CONCLUSION

Implementation Embedded Multi target Tracking
The Tracking system was simulated using the software
System Algorithm for Active Phased Array Radar involves
Matlab (7.7version) and the following results were obtained.
design and development of Kalman filter Algorithms. The
Various scenarios were generated to depict the performance of
design is for Radar data processing. The subsystem Radar data
the Tracking system. Pop up menu in GUI contains the list of
processing forms the nodal element in radar system, does
tracking plot to be viewed. The desired plot is viewed clicking
Track While Scan (TWS) processing for multiple targets and
the show plot button (push button) after selecting the plot title
target tracking. Multi target tracking system design GUI based
in Popup menu. Below are the visual appearance of unique
using Kalman filter algorithm. Algorithms are combined in
plots from the tracking system:
tool box using Matlab 7.7, GUI based to design custom
solution for a specific problem. The toolbox contains several
blocks which facilitates the end users to simulate these
algorithms by just dragging and dropping them into their
required files. These reduce the job of end users in coding
these blocks by using various software’s. Direct comparison of

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algorithms and filters are always easy. The Design and

development Multi target tracking system is successfully
carried out and simulated.
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