Anovelefficienttrackinitiationmethodisproposedfortheharshunderwatertargettrackingenvironment(heavyclutterandlargemeasurementerrors):tracksplitting,evaluating,pruningandmergingmethod(TSEPM).Trackinitiationdemandsthatthemethodshoulddeterminetheexistenceandinitialstateofatargetquicklyandcorrectly.Heavyclutterandlargemeasurementerrorscertainlyposeadditionaldifficultiesandchallenges,whichdeteriorateandcomplicatethetrackinitiationintheharshunderwatertargettrackingenvironment.Therearethreeprimaryshortcomingsforthecurrenttrackinitiationmethodstoinitializeatarget:(a)theycannoteliminatetheturbulencesofcluttereffectively;(b)theremaybeahighfalsealarmprobabilityandlowdetectionprobabilityofatrack;(c)theycannotestimatetheinitialstateforanewconfirmedtrackcorrectly.Basedonthemultiplehypothesestrackingprincipleandmodifiedlogic-basedtrackinitiationmethod,inordertoincreasethedetectionprobabilityofatrack,tracksplittingcreatesalargenumberoftrackswhichincludethetruetrackoriginatedfromthetarget.Andinordertodecreasethefalsealarmprobability,basedontheevaluationmechanism,trackpruningandtrackmergingareproposedtoreducethefalsetracks.TSEPMmethodcandealwiththetrackinitiationproblemsderivedfromheavyclutterandlargemeasurementerrors,determinethetarget’sexistenceandestimateitsinitialstatewiththeleastsquaresmethod.What'smore,ourmethodisfullyautomaticanddoesnotrequireanykindmanualinputforinitializingandtuninganyparameter.Simulationresultsindicatethatournewmethodimprovessignificantlytheperformanceofthetrackinitiationintheharshunderwatertargettrackingenvironment.
