Three dimensional motion camouflage guidance utilizing multiple leaders and one interceptor

This study presents a three dimensional guidance control to intercept a manoeuvring evader. In this study, the authors introduce passive sensing systems, which can move to track the evader, so that the evader cannot escape from the mobile sensing systems. Passive sensing systems composed of multiple aerial vehicles, called leaders, are considered. This study utilizes multiple leaders and one interceptor, which can localize themselves. The interceptor is guided to chase the evader, so that the line connecting the interceptor and the evader does not rotate. The leaders acquire 3‐D angle‐of‐arrival (AOA) measurements of the evader to estimate the evader's 3‐D global coordinate in real time. The leaders are controlled, so that they maximize the information gain from AOA measurements of the evader. The leaders approach the estimated evader, while decreasing the estimate error by changing the formation adaptively. Based on the estimated evader, the interceptor's guidance law is calculated utilizing a leader's on‐board computer and is transmitted to the interceptor in almost real time. To the best of our knowledge, this study is novel in developing multi‐agent control to chase a manoeuvring evader based on leaders' AOA measurements. The effectiveness of the multi‐agent control is shown under computer simulations.