Particle filter based track-before-detect method in the range-doppler domain

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the application of the particle filter for the track-before-detect to detect the target in a low SNR situation. We investigate how to find a target in the range-doppler domain without using adaptive threshold level by CFAR. To do this, we propose the modified particle filter for simple calculation of particle weights. We design the radar simulator that includes full radar signal processing for algorithm verification. In spite of a low SNR situation where it is difficult to detect a target, the proposed algorithm can estimate the optimal position of a target. As the process of the particle filter is repeated, the particles converge to the optimum position considered as the estimated position of a target.