Cooperative ground target tracking with input constraints

This paper considers the problem of cooperative target tracking with multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) subject to input constraints. Cooperation of multiple UAVs to track a moving target can provide better performance and enhance the robustness. However, the physical constraints of the UAVs pose a significant challenge on the UAV controller design. In this paper, the relative course rate controller for a single UAV is firstly developed based on a guidance vector field. Cooperative control strategy of multiple UAVs is studied and a variable airspeed controller is proposed to regulate temporal separation of UAVs. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.