MM-PHD filter-based sensor control for tracking multiple maneuvering targets hidden in the DBZ

To improve the performance of tracking multiple maneuvering targets hidden in the Doppler blind zone (DBZ), we put forward the idea of using sensor control technique to suppress the DBZ masking problem for the first time, by utilizing the principle that the absolute Doppler of a target with respect to a sensor is affected by the target-to-sensor relative geometry and extending multi model probability hypothesis density (MM-PHD) filter for DBZ masking to the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) framework. First, the process flow of sensor control is systematically constructed based on our existing work. Second, in the core sensor controller module, we devise three objective functions (including a new safety indicator ensuring sensor safety, a novel reward rule for the DBZ avoidance, and the Cauchy-Schwarz divergence (CSD) compatible with the multi-maneuvering-target tracking) and a decision-making logic for the selection of control commands. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control scheme are verified through numerical examples, and it is demonstrated that it is obviously superior to the random control strategy and the earlier work without using the control technology.