Cooperative Capture of a Faster Free-Moving Target by Multiple USVs

The problem of cooperative capture has always been one of the research focus in cooperative systems of multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). In the cooperative capture problem, effectively capturing targets whose speed are faster than USVs has been a challenge. Most research has been limited by initializing USVs around the target which restricts the application scenarios of the methods and it is difficult to maintain the encirclement of the target throughout the process, leading to the potential escape of the target. Furthermore, the existing works impose constraints on the faster target, such as limited moving area and moving direction. To address these issues, a cooperative capture strategy in this article based on the Apollonius Circle model and particle swarm optimization is proposed to obtain the optimal motion position. Simulation experiments are conducted under different initial positions, and the results demonstrate that the method proposed can successfully capture the target with good success rate while ensuring a certain level of encirclement, thereby the effectiveness and adaptability of the strategy are verified.