An Automatic UAV Search, Intercept, and Follow Algorithm for Persistent Surveillance

Substantial research has addressed the problems of automatic search, routing, and sensor tasking for UAVs, producing many good algorithms for each task. But UAV surveillance missions typically include combinations of these tasks, so an algorithm that can manage and control UAVs through multiple tasks is desired. The algorithm in this paper employs a cooperative graph-based search when target states are unknown. If target states become more localized, the algorithm switches to route UAV(s) for target intercept. If a UAV is close to a target, waypoints and sensor commands are optimized over short horizons to maintain the best sensor-to-target viewing geometry.