Distributed Kalman--Consensus Filtering with Adaptive Uncertainty Weighting for Multi-Object Tracking in Mobile Robot Networks

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Hauptverfasser: Khosravi, Niusha, Ventura, Rodrigo, Basiri, Meysam
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Khosravi, Niusha
Ventura, Rodrigo
Basiri, Meysam
author_facet Khosravi, Niusha
Ventura, Rodrigo
Basiri, Meysam
contents This paper presents an implementation and evaluation of a Distributed Kalman--Consensus Filter (DKCF) for Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) in mobile robot networks operating under partial observability and heterogeneous localization uncertainty. A key challenge in such systems is the fusion of information from agents with differing localization quality, where frame misalignment can lead to inconsistent estimates, track duplication, and ghost tracks. To address this issue, we build upon the MOTLEE framework and retain its frame-alignment methodology, which uses consistently tracked dynamic objects as transient landmarks to improve relative pose estimates between robots. On top of this framework, we propose an uncertainty-aware adaptive consensus weighting mechanism that dynamically adjusts the influence of neighbor information based on the covariance of the transmitted estimates, thereby reducing the impact of unreliable data during distributed fusion. Local tracking is performed using a Kalman Filter (KF) with a Constant Velocity Model (CVM) and Global Nearest Neighbor (GNN) data association. simulation results demonstrate that adaptive weighting effectively protects local estimates from inconsistent data, yielding a MOTA improvement of 0.09 for agents suffering from localization drift, although system performance remains constrained by communication latency.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_11328
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Distributed Kalman--Consensus Filtering with Adaptive Uncertainty Weighting for Multi-Object Tracking in Mobile Robot Networks
Khosravi, Niusha
Ventura, Rodrigo
Basiri, Meysam
Robotics
Systems and Control
This paper presents an implementation and evaluation of a Distributed Kalman--Consensus Filter (DKCF) for Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) in mobile robot networks operating under partial observability and heterogeneous localization uncertainty. A key challenge in such systems is the fusion of information from agents with differing localization quality, where frame misalignment can lead to inconsistent estimates, track duplication, and ghost tracks. To address this issue, we build upon the MOTLEE framework and retain its frame-alignment methodology, which uses consistently tracked dynamic objects as transient landmarks to improve relative pose estimates between robots. On top of this framework, we propose an uncertainty-aware adaptive consensus weighting mechanism that dynamically adjusts the influence of neighbor information based on the covariance of the transmitted estimates, thereby reducing the impact of unreliable data during distributed fusion. Local tracking is performed using a Kalman Filter (KF) with a Constant Velocity Model (CVM) and Global Nearest Neighbor (GNN) data association. simulation results demonstrate that adaptive weighting effectively protects local estimates from inconsistent data, yielding a MOTA improvement of 0.09 for agents suffering from localization drift, although system performance remains constrained by communication latency.
title Distributed Kalman--Consensus Filtering with Adaptive Uncertainty Weighting for Multi-Object Tracking in Mobile Robot Networks
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.11328