Non-cooperative Model Predictive Control for Capturing a Remotely Piloted Target Drone

This paper addresses the use of model predictive control (MPC) for pursuit-evasion games, where a shuttle drone aims at capturing a remotely piloted target drone. Several models for shuttle and target vehicles are developed, considering different degrees of complexity and reliance in inner-loop controllers. Based on these models MPC strategies are defined for each vehicle, for joint tracking operation, as well as for differential pursuit-evasion games between shuttle and target vehicles. Lastly the human-in-the-loop is added to the model and respective MPC algorithms of the fixed-wing target. Simulation results are provided, showing several scenarios where each vehicle has the advantage in terms of physical capabilities, or the disadvantage of being remotely-piloted.