Target Tracking Systems on a Sphere With Topographic Information

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Control Systems
• Geometric Dynamics
• Autonomous Navigation

Background:

• Target tracking on spherical manifolds presents unique challenges due to curvature and topography.
• Existing methods often struggle with dynamic environments and limited sensory information.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a robust multi-agent tracking system for a moving target on a unit sphere with topographic features.
• To design a control strategy that leverages topographic data for efficient agent trajectory planning.

Main Methods:

• A double-integrator autonomous system model for multiple agents was employed.
• Topographic information was integrated as a friction-like force influencing agent and target dynamics.
• Control designs were developed using target position, velocity, and acceleration data.

Main Results:

• The system demonstrated effective target tracking on the sphere, influenced by topographic data.
• Practical rendezvous results were achieved using only target position and velocity.
• Complete rendezvous was obtained with the addition of target acceleration data and a Coriolis force-inspired control term.

Conclusions:

• The proposed dynamic system and control design enable efficient target tracking on spheres with complex topography.
• The system's performance is adaptable based on the availability of target kinematic information (position, velocity, acceleration).
• Mathematical proofs and numerical experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.