Distributed Guidance for Interception by Using Multiple Rotary-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

A distributed guidance law is proposed to intercept multiple intruding targets by using multiple rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The proposed distributed guidance law is based on the integration of the classic parallel navigation and a velocity feedback. Direction-based potential functions are applied to avoid inter-agent collisions and mis-interceptions. It is proved that, with the proposed distributed guidance law, each UAV is capable of intercepting its specific target within finite time and with nonzero hitting velocity, and there exist neither inter-agent collisions nor mis-interceptions. Task allocation strategies are proposed to allocate targets to UAVs for optimal time efficiency. Theoretical results are illustrated by simulations and a semi-physical experiment.