Three-Dimensional Circumnavigating Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Range-Only Measurements

Abstract

This letter investigates the three-dimensional (3D) circumnavigating control for a single unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) using only range measurements in GPS-denied environments. The core challenge lies in the unavailability of bearing information, rendering traditional control laws ineffective. To formulate the control design, we propose a hierarchical motion decomposition strategy by introducing a virtual anchor, which conceptualizes the UAV's movement as a superposition of orbital and translational motions. Based on this formulation, a global circumnavigation control law is developed by fusing a nonlinear observer with the system dynamics. A unified stability analysis is presented to guarantee that the circumnavigation errors converge to zero from any initial state, without relying on the separation principle. Numerical simulations and field experiments are performed to validate the theoretical results.