Bearings-only target motion analysis based on a multihypothesis Kalman filter and adaptive ownship motion control

The author presents a multihypothesis cartesian Kalman filter (MHCKF) applied to the problem of bearings-only target motion analysis (TMA) from a single moving platform. A method to adaptively control the ownship motion based on a measure of ‘available range information’ extracted from the MHCKF is also presented. The properties of the MHCKF algorithm are discussed qualitatively and illustrated by examples. The adaptive ownship motion is demonstrated and the estimated range is compared with the results from a fixed, two-leg ownship trajectory.