A class of flight trajectories for tracking ground targets with micro air vehicles

In this paper we derive two classes of flight trajectories for tracking ground based objects with micro air vehicles. The first class of flight trajectories, called longitudinal trajectories, consists of switching between clockwise and counter clockwise orbits so that the average velocity of the MAV along the direction of motion is equal to the velocity of the ground target. The second class of flight trajectories, called orbital trajectories, consists of orbits and straight line motions. Longitudinal trajectories are shown to have advantages when the ground speed of the target is close to the ground speed of the MAV. Orbital trajectories are better for relatively slow targets. As a final result, we show that the optimal switching ratio is an inherent property of this class of flight trajectories.