Multiple object tracking using A* association algorithm with dynamic weights

Persistently tracking multiple objects is very challenging when there exit occlusions. We present a tracking association approach based on the A* algorithm. We first formulate the multiple object tracking as an integer programming problem of the flow network. Under this framework, the integer assumption is relaxed to a standard linear programming problem. Therefore, the global optimal solution can quickly be obtained using the A* algorithm with dynamic weights. The proposed method avoids the difficulties of integer programming and more importantly, it has a lower worst-case complexity than competing methods but a better tracking accuracy and robustness in complex environments. Experiment results revealed that our proposed method achieved state-of-the-art time costs and can operate in real-time.