A Scalable Hybrid Track-Before-Detect Tracking System: Application to Coastal Maritime Radar Surveillance

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Herrmann, Lukas, García-Fernández, Ángel F., Brekke, Edmund F., Eide, Egil
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Herrmann, Lukas
García-Fernández, Ángel F.
Brekke, Edmund F.
Eide, Egil
author_facet Herrmann, Lukas
García-Fernández, Ángel F.
Brekke, Edmund F.
Eide, Egil
contents Despite their theoretical advantages, track-before-detect (TBD) methods remain largely absent from real-world multi-target tracking applications due to their computational complexity and limited scalability. This paper presents a scalable hybrid tracking framework that combines a TBD multi-target tracking algorithm with a detection-based multi-target tracking algorithm for coastal radar surveillance. In particular, the approach uses an integrated existence Poisson histogram-probabilistic multi-hypothesis tracking (IE-PHPMHT)-based TBD module with a conventional Poisson multi-Bernoulli Mixture (PMBM) point tracker. The system processes raw radar data through land clutter suppression, cell-wise detection, and clustering-based feature extraction. High-threshold detections are used to track strong targets via the point tracker, while low-threshold detections are employed for adaptive birth in the TBD module, enabling early initiation and sustained tracking of weak or ambiguous targets. Validated using real X-band radar data from the Trondheim Fjord, Norway, the approach demonstrates robust multi-target tracking performance in a full-scale application with a large observation area under resource constraints, highlighting its suitability for operational deployment in complex maritime environments needed for coastal surveillance and to support autonomy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_16169
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Scalable Hybrid Track-Before-Detect Tracking System: Application to Coastal Maritime Radar Surveillance
Herrmann, Lukas
García-Fernández, Ángel F.
Brekke, Edmund F.
Eide, Egil
Signal Processing
Despite their theoretical advantages, track-before-detect (TBD) methods remain largely absent from real-world multi-target tracking applications due to their computational complexity and limited scalability. This paper presents a scalable hybrid tracking framework that combines a TBD multi-target tracking algorithm with a detection-based multi-target tracking algorithm for coastal radar surveillance. In particular, the approach uses an integrated existence Poisson histogram-probabilistic multi-hypothesis tracking (IE-PHPMHT)-based TBD module with a conventional Poisson multi-Bernoulli Mixture (PMBM) point tracker. The system processes raw radar data through land clutter suppression, cell-wise detection, and clustering-based feature extraction. High-threshold detections are used to track strong targets via the point tracker, while low-threshold detections are employed for adaptive birth in the TBD module, enabling early initiation and sustained tracking of weak or ambiguous targets. Validated using real X-band radar data from the Trondheim Fjord, Norway, the approach demonstrates robust multi-target tracking performance in a full-scale application with a large observation area under resource constraints, highlighting its suitability for operational deployment in complex maritime environments needed for coastal surveillance and to support autonomy.
title A Scalable Hybrid Track-Before-Detect Tracking System: Application to Coastal Maritime Radar Surveillance
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16169