Collaborative Control of UAV Swarms for Target Capture Based on Intelligent Control Theory

Real-time dynamic capture of a single moving target is one of the most crucial and representative tasks in UAV capture problems. This paper proposes a multi-UAV real-time dynamic capture strategy based on a differential game model to address this challenge. In this paper, the dynamic capture problem is divided into two parts: pursuit and capture. First, in the pursuit–evasion problem based on differential games, the capture UAVs and the target UAV are treated as adversarial parties engaged in a game. The current pursuit–evasion state is modeled and analyzed according to varying environmental information, allowing the capture UAVs to quickly track the target UAV. The Nash equilibrium solution in the differential game is optimal for both parties in the pursuit–evasion process. Then, a collaborative multi-UAV closed circular pipeline control method is proposed to ensure an even distribution of capture UAVs around the target, preventing excessive clustering and thereby significantly improving capture efficiency. Finally, simulations and real-flight experiments are conducted on the RflySim platform in typical scenarios to analyze the computational process and verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results indicate that this approach effectively provides a solution for multi-UAV dynamic capture and achieves desirable capture outcomes.