Consensus-based cooperative geometrical rules for simultaneous target interception

In a study, researchers consider the simultaneous interception problem of a stationary target by a group of pursuers with unicycle kinematics. The pursuers have different speeds, making the system heterogeneous. Using the tools of cyclic and leader–follower information exchange frameworks from multi-agent systems (MASs), the researchers e propose cooperative geometrical rules and corresponding guidance laws to achieve simultaneous target interception at the minimum possible time and any desired impact time greater than the minimum. In the minimum impact time case, they prove that the impact time of each pursuer is guaranteed to converge to the maximum impact time among the pursuers in the case that they are heading straight to the target, resulting in maximum-consensus.