Multi-target Association Method Based on Velocity and Azimuth Information for Multi-static Passive Radar

In multi-static passive radar systems, the uncontrollability over the transmitters may cause adverse factors formulti-target surveillance, one of which is the absence of range information. In this situation, only the direction of arrival (DOA) and bistatic velocity information may be available. In this paper, to provide a stable state estimation of multi-target with low communication burden and limited frames in a two-dimensional space, a multi-target association method based on azimuth and bistatic velocity information is proposed for multi-static passive radar systems. In every single frame, an efficient two-stage method is proposed based on the principle that the true target’s azimuthal intersections possess high estimated vectorial velocity consistency; then the typical false associations that resemble the velocity consistency of true targets in a single frame (namely velocity ambiguity) are investigated, an inter-frame method utilizing inter-frame motion is proposed to eliminate these false associations. Simulations provide the evidence for the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method across various scenarios.