Angle-Only Target Tracking for Millimeter-Wave Radars: Performance and Experimental Validation

This paper evaluates the application of modified polar coordinates (MPC) extended Kalman filter (EKF) for angle-only target tracking (AoT) in millimeter-wave (mmwave) radar systems. We present the set of comprehensive state and covariance calculations and evaluate the performance of MPC-EKF. We provide a detailed comparison with polar Kalman filter (KF) and an EKF in Cartesian coordinates to benchmark the tracking performance of MPC-EKF. Further, we evaluate the performance of AoT by Monte Carlo simulations and through field experiments. Extensive field experiments complement simulation studies, demonstrating the practical feasibility of the MPC-EKF approach for mmwave radar systems. The results showcase that while MPC-EKF uses only the angle (bearing) measurements, it provides good tracking accuracy in terms of the root mean-squared error, in comparison with polar KF and EKF methods that utilize additional range and velocity data, establishing its potential for low-power sensing applications.