The coordination of multiple UAVs for engaging multiple targets in a time-optimal manner

This paper presents a solution to the real-time control of cooperative unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) that engage multiple targets in a time-optimal manner. Techniques to dynamically allocate vehicles to targets and to find the time-optimal control actions of vehicles are proposed. The effectiveness of the time-optimal control technique is first demonstrated through numerical examples. The proposed strategy is then applied to a practical battlefield problem where ten vehicles are required to engage four targets, and numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed strategy.