Close target reconnaissance with guaranteed collision avoidance

Abstract

This manuscript considers the problem of close target reconnaissance by a group of autonomous agents. The overall close target reconnaissance (CTR) involves subtasks of avoiding inter-agent collisions, reaching a close vicinity of a specific target position, and forming an equilateral polygon formation around the target. The agents performing the task fly at a constant speed to mimic the velocity behavior of small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). A decentralized control scheme is developed for this overall task and the finite-time convergence of the system under the proposed control law is established. Furthermore, it is guaranteed that no collision occurs among the agent. The rele..