A Novel Cooperative Pursuit Strategy in Multiple Underwater robots

A novel cooperative pursuit strategy for multiple underwater robots is proposed in this paper. In this pursuit strategy, the pursuit-evasion game is studied in two stages. In the first stages, when the target keeps the static state, the rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) search algorithm is used to realize the real-time path replanning for multiple underwater robots, so as to avoid the target detection range and reach the desired pre-capture position. Therefore, the concealed problem of encircling the static target is solved. In the second stages, when multiple underwater robots enter into the target detection range, the target will start to escape. In order to solve the problem of capturing a moving target, the cooperative control law for multiple underwater robots is proposed. A circular formation is formed to pursue the target using the cooperative control law so that the capture error can meet a certain performance indexes. Finally, the simulation results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed cooperative pursuit strategy.