Distributed Hunting for Multi USVs Based on Cyclic Estimation and Pursuit

Abstract

In this brief, we study the hunting problem for a group of underactuated surface vehicles (USVs), in which the vehicles converge to the target as the center, as well as maintain the desired relative distance to the target when rotating around the target at the same speed. A approach based on the cyclic matrix is delivered. The overall control objectives are divided into two subobjectives, where the first is target circling that all vehicles rotate a circle around the target, and the second is that the vehicles are eventually evenly spaced on the circle. The former part is based on the cyclic estimation of target to get close to the target, the latter is designed by also cyclic pursuit strategy using the relative angle between the neighbors. An important feature of the controller is that not all vehicles know the target’s position. For hunting with obstacle avoidance, artificial potential method and label’s change strategy between neighbors are also applied to guarantee obstacle avoidance. Numerical simulations are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller.