Comprehensive Time-Offset Estimation for Multisensor Target Tracking

Temporal registration of sensors is an essential preprocessing step in multisensor target tracking systems. A new approach for multisensor time-offset estimation is proposed in this article. First, the time offset pseudomeasurement equation is derived and calculated in both centralized and decentralized scenarios, where measurements and local tracks are available at the fusion center, respectively. The observability of time offset is analyzed theoretically, which shows that only relative time offsets between sensors are observable. Second, a two-sensor two-stage filtering method is developed with four different formulations corresponding to different time-offset statistical models and target dynamic models to obtain a relative time-offset estimate. A multisensor two-stage filter is also proposed to obtain a minimum-bias time-offset estimate. Furthermore, the interacting multiple model estimator is used to deal with temporal registration in the presence of target maneuvers. Finally, the posterior CramrRao lower bound (PCRLB) is derived for relative time-offset estimation. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm with two sensors yields an empirically unbiased estimate of the relative time offset, and that the root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) match the corresponding PCRLB. Simulation results for multisensor target tracking are also presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithms.