Prescribed-Time Maneuvering Target Closing for Multiple Fixed-wing UAVs

In this paper, a prescribed-time Maneuvering Target Closing (MTC) algorithm is proposed based on a prescribed-time acceleration observer for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Closing a maneuvering target is a complex mission, especially with high time constraints, i.e., completing the MTC within a prescribed time. To this end, we propose a prescribedtime cooperative algorithm, such that a maneuvering target is enclosed by multiple UAVs in a distributed formation. Meanwhile, considering the communication limitation, we introduce a prescribed-time acceleration observer to address the problem that global positions of the ground target and other UAVs are unavailable for all UAVs. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate that, within two prescribed times, the proposed algorithm enables the fixed-wing UAVs to achieve the MTC, and the observer's estimation error converges, respectively.