Maximum entropy fuzzy clustering with application to real-time target tracking

The problem of data association for target tracking in a cluttered environment is discussed. In order to deal with the problem of data association for real time target tracking, a novel data association method based on maximum entropy fuzzy clustering is proposed. Firstly, the candidate measurements of each target are clustered with the aid of the modified maximum entropy fuzzy clustering. Then the joint association probabilities are reconstructed by utilizing the fuzzy membership degree of the measurement belonging to the target. At the same time, in order to deal with the uncertainty of the measurements, a new weight assignment is introduced. Moreover, the characteristic of the discrimination factor is analyzed, and the influence of the clutter density on it is also considered, which enables the algorithm eliminate those invalidate measurements and reduce the computational load. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithms have advantages over the existing ones in terms of efficiency and low computational load. r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.