The PHD/CPHD filter for Multiple Extended Target Tracking with Trajectory Set Theory and Explicit Shape Estimation

In this paper, we propose two methods for tracking multiple extended targets or unresolved group targets with elliptical extent shape. These two methods are deduced from the famous Probability Hypothesis Density (PHD) filter and the Cardinality-PHD (CPHD) filter, respectively. In these two methods, Trajectory Set Theory (TST) is combined to establish the target trajectory estimates. Moreover, by employing a decoupled shape estimation model, the proposed methods can explicitly provide the shape estimation of the target, such as the orientation of the ellipse extension and the length of its two axes. We derived the closed Bayesian recursive of these two methods with stable trajectory generation and accurate extent estimation, resulting in the TPHD-E filter and the TCPHD-E filter. In addition, Gaussian mixture implementations of our methods are provided, which are further referred to as the GM-TPHD-E filter and the GM-TCPHD-E filters. We illustrate the ability of these methods through simulations and experiments with real data. These experiments demonstrate that the two proposed algorithms have advantages over existing algorithms in target shape estimation, as well as in the completeness and accuracy of target trajectory generation.