An Evaluation of Certain Selected Modifications to the National Airspace System Bimodal Tracking Algorithm,
Abstract
In the design of a practical tracking algorithm, various nonlinearities are introduced which cannot be evaluated using the standard linear theory. For this reason these nonlinearities, which involve the interaction of the correlation region (search area) and the smoothing constants used in tracking, must be evaluated using simulation of the actual algorithm. Various modifications of the standard bimodal tracking algorithm have been considered, including a comparison of fixed versus dynamic search areas, circular versus noncircular search areas, the introduction of a one-scan delay before use of the large search area smoothing constants, and an evaluation of the influence of the search area design probability on the performance of the tracking algorithm. For a straight-line trajectory, the velocity errors observed using the fixed search area design were found to be approximately three times larger than those theoretically obtainable using an alpha-beta tracking algorithm. The use of a dynamic search area with one-scan delay was found to give a considerable improvement in the straight-line performance of the tracking algorithm, while at the same time small reductions were observed in the peak transient errors for maneuvering targets. Since the performance of the tracking algorithm is highly dependent on the size of the search area (which is based on the statistical properties of the radar errors) the search area parameters should be site-dependent so as to allow equivalent performance from all radar sites.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA072084
Entities
People
- Robert E. Lefferts