Patent ID: 7079991

Claim:
An estimator for method tracking systems providing improved tracking of maneuvering targets comprising: using a modified IMM algorithm in which the expressions for each of the P J (k|k−1), the state prediction covariance for model j, j=1 to n, is modified so that a factor, f J , multiplies the process noise covariance, Q J (k), for each j, j=1 to n, resulting in that the P J (k|k−1) are now expressed as P J ( k|k −1)= F J ( k ) P J ( k −1 |k −1) F J ( k ) T +f J Q J ( k ); Setting the factors f J =1 for those k such that V J (k)S J (k) V J (k) T <C, where C is an initialized threshold, and f J being equal to an initially chosen number greater than one for those k such that V J (k)S J (k) V J (k) T >C, V J (k) being the innovation and S J (k) the innovation covariance for model j, j=1 to n, Whereby an estimator method for tracking as an element of a tracking system, providing improved tracking of maneuvering targets.