Maritime Over the Horizon Sensor Integration: HFSWR Data Fusion Algorithm

Maritime Over the Horizon Sensor Integration: HFSWR Data Fusion Algorithm

Blog Article

In order to provide a constant and complete operational picture of the maritime situation in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) at over the horizon (OTH) distances, a network of high frequency surface-wave-radars (HFSWR) slowly becomes a necessity.Since each HFSWR in the network tracks all the targets it detects independently of other radars in the network, there will be situations where multiple tracks are formed for a single vessel.The algorithm proposed in this paper utilizes radar tracks obtained from individual HFSWRs which are already processed by the multi-target tracking algorithm at the single radar Baby Wipes level, and fuses them into a unique data stream.In this way, the data obtained from multiple HFSWRs originating from the very same target are weighted and combined into a single track.Moreover, the weighting approach significantly reduces inaccuracy.

The algorithm is designed, implemented, and tested in a real working environment.The testing environment is located in the Gulf of Guinea and includes a network of two HFSWRs.In order to validate the algorithm outputs, the position of the vessels was calculated by the algorithm Seasonal X-mas and compared with the positions obtained from several coastal sites, with LAIS receivers and SAIS data provided by a SAIS provider.