IDCAIS: Inter-Defender Collision-Aware Interception Strategy against Multiple Attackers

This paper presents an Inter-Defender Collision-Aware Interception Strategy (IDCAIS) for defenders to intercept attackers in order to defend a protected area, such that each defender also avoids collision with other defenders. In particular, the defenders are assigned to intercept attackers using a mixed-integer quadratic program (MIQP) that: 1)minimizes the sum of times taken by defenders to capture the attackers under time-optimal control, and2) helps eliminate or delay possible future collisions among the defenders on the optimal trajectories. To prevent inevitable collisions on optimal trajectories or collisions arising due to time-sub-optimal behavior by the attackers, a minimally augmented control using exponential control barrier function (ECBF) is provided. Simulations show the efficacy of the approach.