Coordinate frame free Dubins vehicle circumnavigation
Dejan Milutinović, David W. Casbeer, Yongcan Cao, Derek B. Kingston · 2014
A Dubins vehicle circumnavigation controller is derived based on an analysis of state space dynamics resulting from a state transformation. The controller is designed and analyzed in the state space with two continuous and one discrete variables. We showed that the property of our control strategy can be studied based on 2D phase portraits, including the case when the vehicle turning rate is bounded. As a part of our analysis, we found conditions that need to be satisfied for the controller to work and that can be used for gain scheduling and application of the control to a larger range bound. The results are illustrated by 2D phase portraits and simulations describing the control implementation, which is based only on range measurements.