Computationally Efficient DOA Tracking Algorithm in Monostatic MIMO Radar with Automatic Association

We consider the problem of tracking the direction of arrivals (DOA) of multiple moving targets in monostatic multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar. A low-complexity DOA tracking algorithm in monostatic MIMO radar is proposed. The proposed algorithm obtains DOA estimation via the difference between previous and current covariance matrix of the reduced-dimension transformation signal, and it reduces the computational complexity and realizes automatic association in DOA tracking. Error analysis and Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of DOA tracking are derived in the paper. The proposed algorithm not only can be regarded as an extension of array-signal-processing DOA tracking algorithm in (Zhang et al. (2008)), but also is an improved version of the DOA tracking algorithm in (Zhang et al. (2008)). Furthermore, the proposed algorithm has better DOA tracking performance than the DOA tracking algorithm in (Zhang et al. (2008)). The simulation results demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Our work provides the technical support for the practical application of MIMO radar.