Non-cooperative Stochastic Target Encirclement by Anti-synchronization Control via Range-only Measurement

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel approach for non-cooperative stochastic target encirclement using only range measurements, employing a distributed anti-synchronization controller to ensure swift tracking and encirclement in challenging environments.

Contribution

It introduces a new distributed anti-synchronization control method based on range-only measurements for encircling a non-cooperative moving target.

Findings

The estimator and controller converge rigorously under Lyapunov stability.

The method successfully encircles a non-cooperative target in real-world UAV experiments.

Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Abstract

This paper investigates the stochastic moving target encirclement problem in a realistic setting. In contrast to typical assumptions in related works, the target in our work is non-cooperative and capable of escaping the circle containment by boosting its speed to maximum for a short duration. Considering the extreme environment, such as GPS denial, weight limit, and lack of ground guidance, two agents can only rely on their onboard single-modality perception tools to measure the distances to the target. The distance measurement allows for creating a position estimator by providing a target position-dependent variable. Furthermore, the construction of the unique distributed anti-synchronization controller (DASC) can guarantee that the two agents track and encircle the target swiftly. The convergence of the estimator and controller is rigorously evaluated using the Lyapunov technique. A real-world UAV-based experiment is conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed methodology in addition to a simulated Matlab numerical sample. Our video demonstration can be found in the URL https://youtu.be/JXu1gib99yQ.