Observability Enhancement of Maneuvering Target with Bearings-Only Information

The paper considers the problem of maximizing observability of a maneuvering target in an aerial engagement. The only information available to the pursuer is the relative bearing measurements in the vehicle-fixed frame. Detailed analysis of the measurement equation derives a sufficient condition for range observability in terms of target–pursuer relative lateral acceleration histories. Further, an approximate performance measure maximizing the range observability is derived using the notion of the Fisher information matrix and Cramer–Rao lower bound. As an application of the analysis, a rendezvous scenario of two unmanned aerial vehicles is considered and a cooperative leader maneuver maximizing the observability criterion is derived. Error ellipsoid plots representing state estimate accuracy are presented in support of the analytical findings.