Coordinated Standoff Target Tracking by Multiple UAVs in Obstacle-filled Environments

This work discusses a distributed guidance algorithm for standoff target tracking by multiple unmanned vehicles using the traditional Lyapunov guidance vector field framework. The virtual-leader follower topology is used to achieve the formation flight. The novelty of the proposed algorithm is that it considers the maximum possible angular turn rate bounds of the vehicles and generates continuous curvature paths which are flyable. The proposed algorithm ensures that UAVs can afford the lateral acceleration demand of the formation and can track the paths with very low tracking error, which makes it possible to implement in real-world applications. Finally, this guidance algorithm has been extended for standoff target tracking in an obstacle-filled environment. Simulation results are presented to validate the efficacy of the proposed guidance law.