Multiple Mobile Target Detection and Tracking in Small Active Sonar Array

Biodiversity monitoring requires the discovery of multi-target tracking. The main requirement is not to reduce the localization error but the continuity of the tracks: a high ratio between the duration of the track and the lifetime of the target. To this end, we present an algorithm for detecting an...

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Main Authors: Avi Abu, Nikola Mišković, Neven Cukrov, Roee Diamant
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
Series:Remote Sensing
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/11/1925
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author Avi Abu
Nikola Mišković
Neven Cukrov
Roee Diamant
author_facet Avi Abu
Nikola Mišković
Neven Cukrov
Roee Diamant
author_sort Avi Abu
collection DOAJ
description Biodiversity monitoring requires the discovery of multi-target tracking. The main requirement is not to reduce the localization error but the continuity of the tracks: a high ratio between the duration of the track and the lifetime of the target. To this end, we present an algorithm for detecting and tracking mobile underwater targets that utilizes reflections from active acoustic emission of broadband signals received by a rigid hydrophone array. The method overcomes the problem of a high false alarm rate by applying a tracking approach to the sequence of received reflections. A 2D time–distance matrix is created for the reflections received from each transmitted probe signal by performing delay and sum beamforming and pulse compression. The result is filtered by a 2D constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector to identify reflection patterns that correspond to potential targets. Closely spaced signals for multiple probe transmissions are combined into blobs to avoid multiple detections of a single target. The position and velocity are estimated using the debiased converted measurement Kalman filter. The results are analyzed for simulated scenarios and for experiments in the Adriatic Sea, where six Global Positioning System (GPS)-tagged gilt-head seabream fish were released and tracked by a dedicated autonomous float system. Compared to four recent benchmark methods, the results show favorable tracking continuity and accuracy that is robust to the choice of detection threshold.
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spelling doaj-art-63db081d0e2f448ab7fec1aa8a254c702025-08-20T03:11:20ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922025-06-011711192510.3390/rs17111925Multiple Mobile Target Detection and Tracking in Small Active Sonar ArrayAvi Abu0Nikola Mišković1Neven Cukrov2Roee Diamant3Hatter Department of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa, Haifa 3103301, IsraelFaculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, CroatiaRuder Bošković Institute, 10000 Zagreb, CroatiaHatter Department of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa, Haifa 3103301, IsraelBiodiversity monitoring requires the discovery of multi-target tracking. The main requirement is not to reduce the localization error but the continuity of the tracks: a high ratio between the duration of the track and the lifetime of the target. To this end, we present an algorithm for detecting and tracking mobile underwater targets that utilizes reflections from active acoustic emission of broadband signals received by a rigid hydrophone array. The method overcomes the problem of a high false alarm rate by applying a tracking approach to the sequence of received reflections. A 2D time–distance matrix is created for the reflections received from each transmitted probe signal by performing delay and sum beamforming and pulse compression. The result is filtered by a 2D constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector to identify reflection patterns that correspond to potential targets. Closely spaced signals for multiple probe transmissions are combined into blobs to avoid multiple detections of a single target. The position and velocity are estimated using the debiased converted measurement Kalman filter. The results are analyzed for simulated scenarios and for experiments in the Adriatic Sea, where six Global Positioning System (GPS)-tagged gilt-head seabream fish were released and tracked by a dedicated autonomous float system. Compared to four recent benchmark methods, the results show favorable tracking continuity and accuracy that is robust to the choice of detection threshold.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/11/1925sonar imagesmulti-target trackingadaptive beamformingtrackingunderwater target detectionbiodiversity estimation
spellingShingle Avi Abu
Nikola Mišković
Neven Cukrov
Roee Diamant
Multiple Mobile Target Detection and Tracking in Small Active Sonar Array
Remote Sensing
sonar images
multi-target tracking
adaptive beamforming
tracking
underwater target detection
biodiversity estimation
title Multiple Mobile Target Detection and Tracking in Small Active Sonar Array
title_full Multiple Mobile Target Detection and Tracking in Small Active Sonar Array
title_fullStr Multiple Mobile Target Detection and Tracking in Small Active Sonar Array
title_full_unstemmed Multiple Mobile Target Detection and Tracking in Small Active Sonar Array
title_short Multiple Mobile Target Detection and Tracking in Small Active Sonar Array
title_sort multiple mobile target detection and tracking in small active sonar array
topic sonar images
multi-target tracking
adaptive beamforming
tracking
underwater target detection
biodiversity estimation
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/11/1925
work_keys_str_mv AT aviabu multiplemobiletargetdetectionandtrackinginsmallactivesonararray
AT nikolamiskovic multiplemobiletargetdetectionandtrackinginsmallactivesonararray
AT nevencukrov multiplemobiletargetdetectionandtrackinginsmallactivesonararray
AT roeediamant multiplemobiletargetdetectionandtrackinginsmallactivesonararray