arXiv · 2610.34789
ISB-NMPC: Interception-Oriented Spherical-Bearing Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Quadrotors
Abstract
Quadrotor interceptors equipped with strapdown cameras offer a low-cost solution for physically countering unauthorized UAVs. However, this configuration inherently couples vehicle maneuvering and camera pointing, creating a conflict between rapid closing and maintaining target visibility. We present interception-oriented spherical-bearing nonlinear model predictive control (ISB-NMPC), which couples spherical-bearing prediction with nonlinear quadrotor dynamics to jointly optimize target-directed closing motion and visibility. An attitude-compensated extended Kalman filter on S^2 estimates target bearing motion, compensates for perception delay, and predicts target bearings to guide scale-adaptive detection. Across 30 paired simulation trials, ISB-NMPC achieves an interception success rate of 86.7%, the highest among the evaluated controllers, with a mean per-trial target-visible time of 99.11%. Outdoor flights demonstrate acquisition of a 30 cm target at approximately 150 m, with interceptor speed reaching 17 m/s in the long-range flight and approximately 14 m/s while pursuing a quadrotor-towed maneuvering target. The software and hardware are open source at https://github.com/HOLYNOTBAD/ISB-NMPC and https://github.com/HOLYNOTBAD/holydrone, respectively.
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Li Hong, Linkai Liu, Xiangyu Ren, Shuli Lv, Chen Min, Chunjiang Wu, Yujun Zhang, Dingchen Zeng, Quan Quan. 2026-10-26. ISB-NMPC: Interception-Oriented Spherical-Bearing Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Quadrotors. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34789
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