Information Fusion and Target Tracking

Dear Colleagues,

Information fusion involves integrating data from diverse sensors to enhance situational awareness, such as radar, sonar, and cameras, overcoming individual limitations and improving overall understanding. In contrast to single sensors, information fusion technology finds widespread application across various practical domains. Target tracking stands out as a pivotal focus, aiming to ascertain target positions. Despite considerable progress in fusion strategies and tracking methodologies, numerous challenges persist, propelled by technological advancements. On the tracking forefront, hurdles such as model uncertainty, target clustering, and the integration of neural networks necessitate further strides in tracking algorithms. Moreover, factors like disparate sensor fields-of-view, spatiotemporal misregistration, and heterogeneous filtering fusion underscore the imperative of designing robust fusion criteria to ensure tracking resilience. We advocate for the introduction of novel algorithms and the exploration of pragmatic solutions, encompassing centralized/distributed fusion strategies and single-target/multi-target tracking technologies.

This Special Issue covers the entire target tracking pipeline: from single-sensor single-target tracking to multi-sensor multi-target tracking. For this reason, we have conceived this Special Issue, whose purpose is to gather the many researchers operating in the field to contribute to a collective effort in understanding the trends and future questions in the field of information fusion and target tracking. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Multi-sensor Kalman filtering, multi-sensor particle filtering, multi-sensor multi-scale filtering;
• Multi-sensor multi-target tracking, including centralized and distributed frameworks;
• Extended target tracking and group target tracking;
• Multi-source information fusion based on deep learning;
• Heterogeneous filtering fusion;
• Threat assessment and sensor control;
• Massage passing, belief propagation, factor graphs;
• Multi-sensor possibility theory and reasoning methods;
• Integrated detection and tracking;
• Integrated tracking and identification;
• Resource management/allocation;
• Threat assessment and sensor control for target tracking.

Dr. Guchong Li
Dr. Bin Yang
Dr. Zuowei Zhang
Guest Editors

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• multi-sensor
• target tracking
• information fusion
• heterogeneous filtering fusion
• threat assessment and sensor control
• integrated detection and tracking
• integrated tracking and identification
• resource management/allocation