Non-Cooperative Stochastic Target Encirclement by Anti-Synchronization Control Via Range-Only Measurement

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. In extreme conditions, where GPS signals are not available, weight restrictions are present, and ground guidance is absent, the agents can rely solely 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/EDVLvP-bk8M.