A Study on Distributed Multi-Sensor Fusion for Nonlinear Systems Under Non-Overlapping Fields of View.

Abstract

To explore how varying viewpoints influence the accuracy of distributed fusion in asynchronous, nonlinear visual-field systems, this study investigates fusion strategies for multi-target tracking. The primary focus is on how different sensor perspectives affect the fusion of nonlinear moving-target data and the spatial segmentation of such targets. We propose a differential-view nonlinear multi-target tracking approach that integrates the Gaussian mixture, jump Markov nonlinear system, and the cardinalized probability hypothesis density (GM-JMNS-CPHD). The method begins by partitioning the observation space based on the boundaries of distinct viewpoints. Next, it applies a combined technique-the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and SOS (stochastic outlier selection)-to identify outliers near these boundaries. To achieve accurate detection, the posterior intensity is split into several sub-intensities, followed by reconstructing the multi-Bernoulli cardinality distribution to model the target population in each subregion. The algorithm's computational complexity remains on par with the standard GM-JMNS-CPHD filter. Simulation results confirm the proposed method's robustness and accuracy, demonstrating a lower error rate compared to other benchmark algorithms.