Simultaneous Localization and Planning of Cooperative Air Munitions via Dynamic Programming

Abstract

This work centers on the real-time trajectory planning for the cooperative control of two aerial munitions in a planar setting. One munition strikes the stationary ground target and the other will serve as an observer. Sensor information from each munition is assumed available, and the individual target-location estimates are fused in a weighted least squares solution. The variance of this combined estimate is used to define a cost function. The problem posed is to design munition trajectories that minimize this cost function. This work describes the solution of the problem by a dynamic-programming method. The dynamic-programming method establishes a set of grid points for each munition to traverse based on the initial position of the munition relative to the target. The method determines the optimal path along those points to minimize the value of the cost function and consequently decrease the value of uncertainty in the estimate of the target location. The method is validated by comparison to known solutions computed by a variational method for sample solutions. Numerical solutions presented along with computational run times indicate that this method is effective in trajectory design and target location estimation.