Computation-distributed probability hypothesis density filter

Abstract

Particle probability hypothesis density filtering has become a promising approach for multi-target tracking due to its capability of handling an unknown and time-varying number of targets in a nonlinear, non-Gaussian system. However, its computational complexity linearly increases with the number of obtained observations and the number of particles, which can be very time consuming, particularly when numerous targets and clutter exist in the surveillance region. To address this issue, we present a distributed computation particle probability hypothesis density(PHD) filter for target tracking. It runs several local decomposed particle PHD filters in parallel while processing elements. Each processing element takes responsibility for a portion of particles but all measurements and provides local estimates. A central unit controls particle exchange among the processing elements and specifies a fusion rule to match and fuse the estimates from different local filters. The proposed framework is suitable for parallel implementation. Simulations verify that the proposed method can significantly accelerate and maintain a comparative accuracy compared to the standard particle PHD filter.