Autonomous Ground Target Tracking by Multiple Cooperative UAVs

With the recent advent of moderate-cost unmanned (or uninhabited) aerial vehicles (UAV) and their success in surveillance, it is natural to consider the cooperative management of groups of UAVs. The problem considered in this paper is the optimization of the information obtained by a group of UAVs carrying out surveillance of several ground targets distributed over a large area. The UAVs are assumed to be equipped with Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) radars, which measure the locations of moving ground targets as well as their radial velocities (Doppler). In this paper, a cooperative control algorithm is proposed, according to which each UAV decides its path independently based on an information theoretic criterion function. The criterion function also incorporates target detection probability and survival probability for sensors corresponding to hostile fire by targets as well as collision with other UAVs. The control algorithm requires limited communication and modest computation.