Distributed Circumnavigation Using Bearing Based Control with Limited Target Information

In this paper, we address the problem of circumnavigation of a stationary target by a heterogeneous group comprising of $\mathbf{\text{n}}$ autonomous agents, having unicycle kinematics. The agents are assumed to have constant linear speeds, we control only the angular speeds. Assuming limited sensing capabilities of the agents, only a subset of agents, termed as $\mathit{\text{leaders}}$, know the target location. The rest, termed as $\mathit{\text{followers}}$, do not. We propose a distributed guidance law which drives all the agents towards the desired objective; global asymptotic stability (GAS) is ensured by using Zubov’s theorem. The efficacy of the approach is demonstrated through both numerical simulations and hardware experiments.