NMPC-Based Cooperative Strategy to Lure Two Attackers Into Collision by Two Targets

This letter presents a cooperative target defense strategy using nonlinear model-predictive control (NMPC) framework for a two–target two–attacker (2T2A) problem. Each attacker needs to capture a designated target individually. The objective of the two targets is to cooperate such that they lure the two attackers into a collision. We assume that the targets do not have perfect knowledge of the attacker states, and hence they estimate the attacker states using EKF. The NMPC scheme computes closed-loop optimal control commands for the targets while satisfying state and control constraints. Theoretical analysis is carried out to determine escape regions that will lead to the targets’ survival or capture. Numerical simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed NMPC-based strategy for different scenarios validating the theoretical results.