Multi-hypothesis test for close targets detection in co-located MIMO radar

To distinguish/detect multiple close targets is of great significance in many areas, and the typical tool is the GLRT detection. However, there will be distinguishing difficulty and mutual interference when present targets are very close. Furthermore, it is difficult for binary decision theory to tell where the targets locate exactly as it can only make a decision that whether there is one or two targets present. As it cannot utilise the prior information of target number, it also suffers a poor detection performance. To overcome those disadvantages, the authors bring in multi-hypothesis test (MHT) to the multi-target model within co-located MIMO radar. They also apply the sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) to locate the multiple range-located targets efficiently, whose angles are known as a prior. The simulations show that authors’ SPRT-based detection is more fast and constant comparing to the existing GLRT-based detection taken within cell-by-cell.