Range tracking filter using measurements with uncertain delays

In modern marine range tracking systems, both Doppler radar and range sensors are often used to enhance the detection and tracking performance against sea clutters. Due to the delays in communication links, however, the measurements of the sensors do not arrive simultaneously to the data processor where the tracking filter operates. Moreover, the magnitudes of the delays vary irregularly. To cope with this problem of uncertain time delays, in this paper, we propose a new range tracking filter algorithm by adding a ZSB (zero-scan-back) MAP (maximum a posteriori) delay estimator to conventional Kalman tracking filter. Computer simulations are carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed filter.