Multitarget Particle Filter Track-before-detect Algorithm with Unknown Target Number

Since it is assumed that the number or the maximum number of possible targets is known in the current particle filter based track-before-detection (TBD) algorithms, and this paper proposes a novel multi-target TBD algorithm based on particle filter and successive-target-cancellation (PF-STC). This novel algorithms deals with the multiple target tracking and detection with no prior information of the number of targets by simplifying K-dimension joint detection as multiple independent target detection. Compared with previous particle filter based multi-target TBD algorithms, the new proposed algorithm has no need for the prior information of the target number, and overcomes the difficulty of the weaker target detection when it is close to the stronger target. The simulation results show that the new proposed algorithm can effectively improve the detection performance of multiple weak targets.