Kennedy, H.L.Scott, W.Cook, S.C.2018-12-042018-12-042012Computers and Electrical Engineering, 2012; 38(6):1745-17590045-7906http://hdl.handle.net/2440/116547Data association (DA) in highly sensitive electronic support (ES) systems is nontrivial when closely-spaced, low probability-of-intercept (LPI) emitters, in cluttered radio-frequency (RF) environments, are sought. A practical processing framework for these situations is presented in this paper. Joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) is used to handle the multitarget tracking (MTT) problem in frequency-augmented direction-of-arrival versus time coordinates (i.e. ‘signal’ space). It is shown that the JPDA update has a pleasantly simple form when processing a serial stream of time-stamped measurements. A Bayesian M-out-of-N track confidence model is derived using the beta distribution and used to ‘integrate’ automatic track management functions (i.e. JIPDA). A maximum-likelihood expectation–maximisation (ML-EM) algorithm is also derived and applied to perform bearing-only target-motion-analysis (TMA) in geographic coordinates for confirmed JIPDA tracks. The application of EM compensates for previous measurement-to-signal-track assignment errors and decreases the deleterious influence of spurious measurements, due to clutter or other emitters, without combinatorial complexity. Highlights: The ES data processing problem is factored into signal and geographic coordinates. JIPDA is applied to solve the multi-target tracking problem in signal coordinates. Beta distributions are used to yield a Bayesian M-out-of-N track confidence model. ML-EM eliminates outliers and locates emitters in geographic coordinates.en© 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Journal article003005397610.1016/j.compeleceng.2012.08.0012-s2.0-84870057854263263Cook, S.C. [0000-0002-7753-8410]