Optimal trajectories for unmanned aerial vehicles tracking the moving targets using linear antenna array

Considered is a flight trajectory optimization problem for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that performs moving target tracking with linear antenna array by bearings observation. It is shown that bearing measurements accuracy is highly dependent on the antenna array orientation (mutual positioning of a target and UAV). This dependency leads to presence of “blind zones” – angles values with high range of measurement errors. Under such circumstances of observation an objective can be set to choose optimal (in terms of targeting accuracy) trajectories of UAV flight and to put additional restrictions on its maneuvering intensity. Optimal trajectories are calculated numerically as two-point boundary problem derived from Pontryagin's maximum principle.