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It is difficult to track multiple maneuvering targets of which the number is unknown and timevarying, especially when there is range ambiguity. The random finite sets (RFS) based probability hypothesis density filter (PHDF) is an effective solution to the problem of multiple targets tracking. However, when tracking multiple targets via the range ambiguous radar, the problem of range ambiguity has to be solved. In this paper, a multiple model PHDF and data association (MMPHDF-DA) based method is proposed to address multiple maneuvering targets tracking with range ambiguous radar in clutter. Firstly, by introducing the turn rate of target and the discrete pulse interval number (PIN) as components of target state vector, and modeling the incremental variable of the PIN as a three-state Markov chain, the problem of multiple maneuvering targets tracking with range ambiguity is converted into a hybrid state filtering problem. Then, by implementing a novel "track-estimate" oriented association with the filtering results of the hybrid filter, target tracks are provided at each time step. Simulation results demonstrate that the MMPHDF-DA can estimate target state as well as the PIN simultaneously, and succeeds in multiple maneuvering target tracking with range ambiguity in clutter. Simulation results also demonstrate that the MMPHDF-DA can overcome the limitation of the Chinese Remainder Theorem for range ambiguity resolving.

A novel approach, which can handle ambiguous data from weak targets, is proposed within the randomized Hough transform track-before-detect (RHT-TBD) framework. The main idea is that, without the pre-detection and ambiguity resolution step at each time step, the ambiguous measurements are mapped by the multiple hypothesis ranging (MHR) procedure. In this way, all the information, based on the relativity in time and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) domains, can be gathered among different PRFs and integrated over time via a batch procedure. The final step is to perform the RHT with all the extended measurements, and the ambiguous data is unfolded while the detection decision is confirmed at the end of the processing chain. Unlike classic methods, the new approach resolves the problem of range ambiguity and detects the true track for targets. Finally, its application is illustrated to analyze and compare the performance between the proposed approach and the existing approach. Simulation results exhibit the effectiveness of this approach.

A robust generalized labeled multi-Bernoulli (GLMB) filter is presented to perform multitarget tracking (MTT) with unknown non-stationary heavy-tailed measurement noise (HTMN). The HTMN is modeled as a multivariate Student's t-distribution with unknown and time-varying mean. The proposed filter relaxes the restrictive assumption that the mean of HTMN is zero, and can effectively deal with MTT under the condition that the mean of HTMN is unknown and time-varying. The variational Bayesian (VB) approximation is applied in the GLMB filtering framework with the augmented state. The marginal likelihood function is obtained via minimizing the Kullback-Leibler divergence by the variational lower bound. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed filter can effectively track multiple targets in both linear and nonlinear scenarios when the mean of HTMN is unknown and time-varying.INDEX TERMS Generalized labeled multi-Bernoulli filter, multitarget tracking (MTT), variational Bayesian (VB), non-stationary, heavy-tailed measurement noise (HTMN), unknown and time-varying mean.