Moving target detector data utilization investigation

The Moving Target Detector (MTD), developed by MIT's Lincoln Lab., under contract to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), was designed as an improved video processor for use with the Airport Surveillance Radars within the Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) 3 automated Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. This device interfaces between the analog radar system and the digital automatic tracking system to provide automatic target detection and false alarm regulation. In addition to range, bearing, and amplitude data, the MTD provides Doppler information on detected targets. This data is in the form of unconsolidated reports that are to be centroided and tracked to provide a primary radar data base for ATC functions. In order to evaluate the potential benefits of this MTD data on the ATC tracking operation, the present study was conducted using experimental data gathered by the FAA and Lincoln Laboratory with an FPS-18 radar at the National Aviation Facilities Engineering Center during the summer of 1975. The principal investigations focus on: development of a centroid algorithm for extracting significant target features; and using these features within the subsequent tracking function.