A Time-Optimal Feedback Control for a Particular Case of the Game of Two Cars

Abstract

In this article, a computationally efficient time-optimal feedback solution to the game of two cars, for the case where the pursuer is faster and more agile than the evader, is presented. The concept of continuous subsets of the reachable set is introduced to characterize the time-optimal pursuit–evasion game under feedback strategies. Using these subsets, it is shown that, if initially the pursuer is distant enough from the evader, then the feedback saddle point strategies for both the pursuer and the evader are coincident with one of the common tangents from the minimum radius turning circles of the pursuer to the minimum radius turning circles of the evader. Using geometry, four feasible tangents are identified and the feedback <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\min -\max$</tex-math></inline-formula> strategy for the pursuer and the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\max \text{--}\min$</tex-math></inline-formula> strategy for the evader are derived by solving a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times 2$</tex-math></inline-formula> matrix game at each instant. Insignificant computational effort is involved in evaluating the pursuer and evader inputs using the proposed feedback control law, and hence, it is suitable for real-time implementation.