A Data Association Method Based on Azimuth Inverse Cotangent Value

In this paper, we address the challenge of data association in scenarios involving multiple observers for underwater non-cooperative localization, where it is unclear how measurement data from different stations corresponds to the same target. We propose a novel data association method that leverages the inverse cotangent of azimuthal sequence features. The method first calculates the sequence of cotangent values measured by each station's bearing in a limited time. Linearly analyzes the sequence to obtain the slope, and finally realizes the data association according to the characteristic that the inverse cotangent value of the slope corresponds to the target's motion heading. The simulation results show that the proposed method has better association localization ability compared with the traditional method, overcomes the problem of the conventional method that the computational volume is too large when the number of observation stations and targets is large, and ensures the association correctness under a certain error.