Unmanned aerial vehicle control in the task of mobile ground object tracking

The article is devoted to solving the problem of analytical determination of optimal control and synthesis of the trajectory of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) when tracking a moving ground object (GO). Based on the analysis of modern GO tracking systems installed on UAVs, it is proposed to determine the required control acceleration of the UAV by extrapolation over an admissibly possible time interval of the GO motion trajectory. An original kinematic scheme of the UAV motion is considered when it flies through specified predicted points in space, on the basis of which the mathematical formulation of the problem of minimizing the justified quality functional under specified constraints is formalized in the form of a mathematical model of the UAV motion. A justified choice of an analytical solution to the optimization problem made it possible to formulate the law of control of the acceleration of the UAV center of mass, taking into account the change in the trajectory of the GO motion and minimization of control costs. The given example of mathematical modeling of the optimal control of a UAV and the formation of its flight trajectory when accompanied by a ground object demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed method and the prospects of its application for the synthesis of UAV autopilots at the preliminary design stage.