Distributed tracking in multistatic sonar

Abstract

This paper develops centralized and distributed tracker performance models that account for the fading detection performance that is common in active sonar contact data. We apply centralized and distributed tracking algorithms to simulated active sonar data that exhibits detection fading, and compare tracking performance to that predicted by the tracker models. We find qualitative agreement of model-based and simulation-based results, and we identify a tradeoff between centralized and distributed approaches: the former achieves better localization accuracy, while the latter achieves better performance in a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve sense.