Cooperative Hunting Strategy with Multi-Pursuer and a Superior Evader

This paper considers a pursuit-evasion game involving multiple pursuers and a single superior evader with nonholonomic constraints. A novel cooperative pursuit strategy is proposed to capture a fast evader while minimizing the generation of escape gaps. First, based on the theory of Apollonius circles, the initial position distribution of pursuers required to ensure the capture of a fast evader is proposed. Second, based on the heading angle of the evader, the pursuers are assigned tasks to divide them into one hunter and multiple surrounders. Meanwhile, the surrounders are again divided into two groups to assist hunter in capturing the faster evader. Then, the strategy of the hunter is designed based on the concept of parallel guidance law. The strategy for the surrounders is proposed based on optimal control, taking into consideration the coverage angle between adjacent Apollonius circles and the distance to the evader. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed cooperative hunting strategy.