Minimum-time lateral interception of a moving target by a Dubins car

This paper presents the problem of lateral interception by a Dubins car of a target that moves along an a priori known trajectory. This trajectory is given by two coordinates of a planar location and one angle of a heading orientation, every one of them is a continuous function of time. The optimal trajectory planning problem of constructing minimum-time trajectories for a Dubins car in the presence of a priory known time-dependent wind vector field is a special case of the presented problem. Using the properties of the three-dimensional reachable set of a Dubins car, it is proved that the optimal interception point belongs to a part of an analytically described surface in the three-dimensional space. The analytical description of the surface makes it possible to obtain 10 algebraic equations for calculating parameters of the optimal control that implements the minimum-time lateral interception. These equations are generally transcendental and can be simplified for particular cases of target motion (e.g. resting target, straight-line uniform target motion). Finally, some particular cases of optimal lateral interception validate developments of the paper and highlight the necessity to consider each of 10 algebraic equations in general case. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.