Track initiation and target tracking filter using LiDAR for ship tracking in marine environment

Abstract

This paper describes the track initiation and target-tracking filter for ship tracking in a marine environment by using Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR). LiDAR with three-dimensional scanning capability is more useful for target tracking in the short to medium range compared to RADAR. LiDAR has rotating multi-beams that return point clouds reflected from targets. Through preprocessing the cluster of the point cloud, the center point can be obtained from the cloud. Target tracking is carried out by using the center points of targets. The track of the target is initiated by investigating the normalized distance between the center points and connecting the points. The regular track obtained from the track initiation can be maintained by the target-tracking filter, which is commonly used in radar target tracking. The target-tracking filter is constructed to track a maneuvering target in a cluttered environment. The target-tracking algorithm including track initiation is experimentally evaluated in a sea-trial test with several boats. Copyright.