Ground target tracking and collision avoidance for UAV based guidance vector field

This paper focuses on ground-moving target tracking of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the presence of static obstacles and moving threat sources. Due to a UAV is restricted by airspace restrictions and measurement limitations during flight, we derive a dynamic path planning strategy by generating guidance vector filed combined Lyapunov vector field with collision avoidance potential function to track target in standoff distance loitering pattern, and resolved collision avoidance, simultaneously. This method relies only on the current information of the UAV and target, and generates a single-step route plan in realtime. Its performance is simple, efficient, and fast and have low computational complexity. The results of numerical simulation verify the effectiveness of the tracking and collision avoidance process of the UAV.