Impact time control using biased proportional navigation for missiles with varying velocity

A feasible guidance scheme with impact time constraint is proposed for attacking a stationary target by missiles with time-varying velocity. The main idea is to replace the constant velocity with the future mean velocity; therefore, the existing time-to-go estimation algorithm of the proportional navigation guidance law can be improved to adapt to varying conditions. In order to obtain the prediction of the velocity profile, the velocity differential equation to the downrange is derived, which can be numerically integrated between the current downrange and the target position by the on-board computer. Then, a third-order polynomial is introduced to fit the velocity profile in order to calculate the future mean velocity. At the beginning of each guidance loop, the future mean velocity is predicted and the time-to-go information is updated, based on which a novel biased proportional navigation guidance law is established to achieve the impact time constraint. Finally, numerical simulation results verified the effectiveness of the time-to-go estimation algorithm and the proposed law.     

Optimal pure proportional navigation for maneuvering targets

The optimal pure proportional navigation (PPN) guidance law with time-varying navigation gains is considered. Unlike the conventional optimal PPN approach where linearized model was assumed in the optimization process, this work exploits the exact nonlinear formulation of PPN to derive analytically the optimal time trajectory of the navigation gain to minimize a performance index which is a weighted sum of the final time and the integral of the squared acceleration. It is verified that the PPN scheme with constant navigation gain is not only optimal in the vicinity of the interception point, but also optimal for the whole trajectory, if the navigation constant is designed by the methodology proposed here. Based on the optimization results for nonmaneuvering targets, a recursive optimal PPN scheme is proposed for maneuvering targets, wherein the optimal navigation gain and time-to-go are predicted recursively during the interception, and trajectory and performance of the interceptor guided by optimal recursive PPN scheme are evaluated analytically.     

Guidance law with impact time and impact angle constraints

A novel closed-form guidance law with impact time and impact angle constraints is pro- posed for salvo attack of anti-ship missiles, which employs missile’s normal acceleration (not jerk) as the control command directly. Firstly, the impact time control problem is formulated as tracking the designated time-to-go (the difference between the designated impact time and the current flight time) for the actual time-to-go of missile, and the impact angle control problem is formulated as tracking the designated heading angle for the actual heading angle of missile. Secondly, a biased proportional navigation guidance (BPNG) law with designated heading angle constraint is constructed, and the actual time-to-go estimation for this BPNG is derived analytically by solving the system differential equations. Thirdly, by adding a feedback control to this constructed BPNG to eliminate the time-to-go errorthe difference between the standard time-to-go and the actual time-to-go, a guidance law with adjustable coefficients to control the impact time and impact angle simultaneously is developed. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the performance and feasibility of the proposed approach.     

Pursuer identification and time-to-go estimation using passive measurements from an evader

We present an algorithm for identifying the parameters of a proportional navigation guidance missile (pursuer) pursuing an airborne target (evader) using angle-only measurements from the latter. This is done for the purpose of classifying the missile so that appropriate counter-measures can be taken. Mathematical models are constructed for a pursuer with a changing velocity, i.e., a direction change and a speed change. Assuming the pursuer is launched from the ground with fixed thrust, its motion can be described by a four-dimensional parameter vector consisting of its proportional navigation constant and three parameters related to thrusting. Consequently, the problem can be solved as a parameter estimation problem, rather than state estimation and we provide an estimator based on maximum likelihood (ML) to solve it. The parameter estimates obtained can be mapped into the time-to-go until intercept estimation results are presented for different scenarios together with the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB), which quantifies the best achievable estimation accuracy. The accuracy of the time-to-go estimate is also obtained. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed estimator is efficient by meeting the CRLB.     

Three-dimensional cooperative guidance laws against stationary and maneuvering targets

This paper presents the cooperative strategies for salvo attack of multiple missiles based on the classical proportional navigation(PN) algorithm.The three-dimensional(3-D) guidance laws are developed in a quite simple formulation that consists of a PN component for target capture and a coordination component for simultaneous arrival.The centralized algorithms come into effect when the global information of time-to-go estimation is obtained, whereas the decentralized algorithms have better performance when each missile can only collect information from neighbors.Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed coordination algorithms are feasible to perform the cooperative engagement of multiple missiles against both stationary and maneuvering targets.The effectiveness of the 3-D guidance laws is also discussed.     

Biased PNG law for impact with angular constraint

A new homing guidance law is proposed to impact a target with a desired attitude angle. It is a variation of the conventional proportional navigation guidance (PNG) law which includes a supplementary time-varying bias. The proposed guidance law does not require a time-to-go estimation and has a simpler form. Analytic conditions for fulfilling the guidance goal are also provided. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed guidance law has wider launch envelopes than the previous one and shows a good performance even against a maneuvering target     

导弹协同作战飞行时间裕度

 基于导弹协同作战任务规划系统进行合理任务分配的需求,研究了导弹可以修正控制飞行时间的裕度。根据导弹-目标在视线坐标系和角动量坐标系下的运动关系,得出了导弹相对于目标的加速度,并基于此给出了导弹剩余飞行时间的估算方法;当前时刻导弹剩余飞行时间的估算值与已经飞行的时间以及任务规划系统指定的期望到达时间构成时间反馈作用,用于修正控制导弹到达目标的最终飞行时间。由于真比例导引律在工程实现和解析运算中具有一定的优势,选择在真比例制导加速度的视线方向施加时间反馈控制作用,进而得出了基于真比例导引律的导弹协同作战飞行时间控制导引律;最后重点研究了在该时间控制导引律的作用下,存在导弹的飞行速度限制以及弹目相对运动约束时,导弹飞行过程中任一时刻对应解析形式的可控飞行时间的裕度。仿真结果表明,本文的设计合理可行,对于多弹协同作战的实现具有重要意义。     

基于偏置比例导引与凸优化的火箭垂直着陆制导

凸优化由于求解效率高在飞行器轨迹规划和制导中得到广泛研究应用。但是，由于火箭垂直返回制导需要考虑气动力带来的非线性，现有的凸优化求解方法或简单地采取逐次线性化近似凸化最优控制问题，经常出现收敛性问题；或需针对具体问题进行相应的系列凸化剪裁，虽然改善了收敛性，但不同模型的凸化剪裁方法差别很大，通用性较差。为此，将偏置比例导引与凸优化相结合，用以求解存在落角、落速和推力范围约束的火箭垂直返回定点软着陆制导问题。提出的制导方法将该制导问题分解为法向满足落角与落点约束的偏置比例导引，以及切向满足速度与推力约束的凸优化和滚动时域控制制导。在切向制导中，提出利用三次多项式近似飞行轨迹以方便凸优化求解，并建立剩余飞行时间的估算方法以提供给比例导引。仿真结果表明，提出的制导方法能有效满足各种约束，实现火箭精确着陆。与现有的直接采取逐次线性化近似的凸优化方法相比，提出的方法由于将制导进行切向和法向分解，大为简化了凸优化模型，显著提高了求解效率和收敛性。此外，提出的方法无需复杂繁琐的凸化处理，对于一般的推力可控且对末速存在约束的固定终端位置的制导问题皆适用。     

The proportional navigation dilemma-pure or true?

Two generic classes of proportional navigation (PN) laws are compared in detail. One class consists of pursuer-velocity-referenced systems, which include pure proportional navigation (PPN) and its variants; the second category consists of line-of-sight- (LOS-) referenced systems such as true proportional navigation (TPN), generalized true proportional navigation (GTPN), and generalized guidance laws. The existing closed-form solutions are discussed in detail, and the classical linear and quasilinear analytical solutions are summarized. A critical comparison is then made with regard to the definition, implementation, and analytical aspects of the guidance laws, including the method, the nature of solution, and an appraisal of the behavior of the pursuer motion resulting from the laws. It is established that, in spite of some restricted advantages in the solvability of the equations of motion, the LOS-referenced PN schemes suffer from serious limitations in terms of implementation and trajectory behavior. Among the major drawbacks are forward velocity variation requirement, relatively large control effort requirement, restrictions on initial engagement conditions to ensure intercept, lack of robustness, and possibility of unbounded acceleration. It is concluded that PPN is a better guidance law in a practical sense than TPN and its generalizations     

Design of Time-constrained Guidance Laws via Virtual Leader Approach

Guidance problems with flight time constraints are considered in this article. A new virtual leader scheme is used for design of guidance laws with time constraints. The core idea of this scheme is to adopt a virtual leader for real missiles to convert a guidance problem with time constraints to a nonlinear tracking problem, thereby making it possible to settle the problem with a variety of control methods. A novel time-constrained guidance (TCG) law, which can control the flight time of missiles to a prescribed time, is designed by using the virtual leader scheme and stability method. The TCG law is a combination of the well-known proportional navigation guidance(PNG) law and the feedback of flight time error. What's more, this law is free of singularities and hence yields better performances in comparison with optimal guidance laws with time constraints. Nonlinear simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed law.     

A unified formulation of optimal guidance-to-collision law for accelerating and decelerating targets

This paper provides a unified formulation of optimal guidance-to-collision law for a target with an arbitrary acceleration or deceleration. The collision course for general target acceleration or deceleration is first determined from the engagement geometry in conjunction with the nonlinear engagement kinematics in the proposed approach. The heading error defined in the collision course is then adopted as a variable to be nullified for accomplishing the intercept condition.The proposed guidance ...     

Optimal and Suboptimal Guidance for a Short-Range Homing Missile

Optimal and suboptimal guidance laws for short-range homing missiles are developed and compared to the commonly mechanized quidance law of proportional navigation. The optimal controller is derived as an optimal feedback regulator; the suboptimal controller is an approximation of the optimal regulator and consists of timevarying proportional navigation plus a time-varying gain term times a calculated target acceleration. Monte Carlo studies of the three controllers show that the optimal and suboptimal controllers are much superior to proportional navigation for the case of combined constant target acceleration, line-of-sight rate noise, and missile acceleration saturation.     

On the generalization of true proportional navigation

A simple framework to define generalized true proportional navigation (GTPN) guidance laws is presented. It is shown that this framework subsumes many of the generalizations presented in the earlier literature. The capture regions of a number of GTPN guidance laws are obtained through a rigorous qualitative analysis. The method of analysis is simpler and lends itself directly to an easy geometrical interpretation. A considerable amount of misinterpretation in the previous results, arising out of certain basic misconceptions, are corrected here. It is shown that a logical application of the guidance philosophy, through a minor modification of GTPN to take into account the direction of rotation of the line-of-sight (LOS), contributes substantially to the expansion of the capture region in the relative velocity space. In particular, it is shown that the capture region also extends to the negative closing velocity region, thus making the modified GTPN almost comparable, so far as the domain of capturability of guidance laws is concerned, to the pure proportional navigation (PPN) guidance law. A number of new results on the exact bounds on the capture region are derived and illustrated through examples     

Three-dimensional midcourse guidance using neural networks forinterception of ballistic targets

A suboptimal midcourse guidance law is obtained for interception of free-fall targets in the three-dimensional (3D) space. Neural networks are used to approximate the optimal feedback strategy suitable for real-time implementation. The fact that the optimal trajectory in the 3D space does not deviate much from a vertical plane justifies the use of the two-dimensional (2D) neural network method previously studied. To regulate the lateral errors in the missile motion produced by the prediction error of the intercept point, the method of feedback linearization is employed. Computer simulations confirm the superiority of the proposed scheme over linear quadratic regulator guidance and proportional navigation guidance as well as its approximating capability of the optimal trajectory in the 3D space     

Unified approach to missile guidance laws: a 3D extension

Since the proportional navigation guidance law was first introduced, many of the researchers had proposed different methodologies to investigate the corresponding performances of all the existing guidance laws. Even though a unified approach was proposed a few years ago, other authors found that under the proposed framework, all the existing guidance laws, namely ideal proportional navigation (IPN), true proportional navigation (TPN), and pure proportional navigation (PPN), were indeed special cases of the mentioned general guidance law. However, the results were restricted to two-dimensional space. In this paper, the author not only extends the results to three-dimensional space, but also to general IPN (GIPN), general TPN (GTPN), and PPN. Unlike conventional researchers, a modified polar coordinate (MPC) is adopted. It is shown that with the property of this MPC, for the line of sight (LOS) based guidance laws (GIPN and GTPN) the number of differential equations required to fully describe the relative dynamics can be reduced from six to three, however, for the missile's velocity-based guidance law, i.e., PPN, five differential equations are required. All the terms of differential equations involve only products and additions of variables. For all the mentioned guidance laws in this paper, only two transformed variables are required to describe the capture region, while the third variable is required to provide the condition of finite turn rate.     

基于双圆弧原理的协同制导律研究

为了突破舰艇配备的近程防御武器系统,反舰导弹需对攻击时间与攻击角度进行协同制导,以实施饱和攻击。文章基于双圆弧原理提出了一种多导弹攻击时间与攻击角度协同制导律。首先,采用双圆弧原理规划导弹的航路,将导弹导引到预定的攻击角度上。然后,根据待飞直线距离对待飞时间进行估算,求出预测时间误差,确定导弹按照特定的圆弧轨迹机动飞行的指令和机动飞行的时间,通过机动飞行来对时间误差进行补偿。最后,再利用所设计的导引律导引导弹攻击目标。     

Generalized guidance law for homing missiles

The concept of a generalized guidance law is presented, and the closed-form solution for a homing missile pursuing a maneuvering target according to generalized guidance laws is given. It is shown that the guidance laws appearing in the literature are merely special cases of the one proposed by the authors. The derived generalized forms of capture area, missile acceleration, and homing time duration that are derived provide insight into the performance of the guidance laws being considered and lead to the discovery of new ones. The problem of finding a nonlinear optimal guidance law for a homing missile with controlled acceleration, applied so as to capture a maneuvering target with a predetermined trajectory while minimizing a weighted linear combination of time of capture and energy expenditures, is solved in closed form. The derived optimal control law is equal to the LOS (line of sight) rate multiplied by a trigonometric function of the aspect angle. Numerical simulation shows that the resulting guidance law appears to yield a significant advantage over true proportional navigation     

具有二阶环节的导弹最优导引律

本文研究了具有二阶环节的导弹其对目标的最优导引律。利用极小值原理分别研究了1)脱靶量为零、最小控制能量指标的最优导引律;2)终态为零控拦截曲面、最小能量指标的最优导引律。最后得出了与具有一阶延迟环导弹所得结果类似,但计算工作量更大,结果应更准确。     

Autonomous navigation and guidance for landing on asteroids

This paper presents an autonomous landing navigation and guidance scheme for future asteroid sample return mission. An autonomous navigation scheme based on feature tracking technology is brought out firstly; secondly, desired descent landing trajectories with the initial and terminal constraints are planned in order to achieve arrive-at-time landing on an asteroid; then, two guidance control laws, based on error phase analysis method and PD plus PWPF method respectively, are designed to track reference descent trajectory; finally, the validity of the proposed scheme is confirmed by computer simulation.     

Launch Envelope Optimization of Virtual Sliding Target Guidance Scheme

This paper presents an optimization of the performance of a recently proposed virtual sliding target (VST) guidance scheme in terms of maximization of its launch envelope for three-dimensional (3-D) engagements. The objective is to obtain the launch envelope of the missile using the VST guidance scheme for different lateral launch angles with respect to the line of sight (LOS) and demonstrate its superiority over kinematics-based guidance laws like proportional navigation (PN). The VST scheme uses PN as its basic guidance scheme and exploits the relation between the atmospheric properties, missile aerodynamic characteristics, and the optimal trajectory of the missile. The missile trajectory is shaped by controlling the instantaneous position and the speed of a virtual target which the missile pursues during the midcourse phase. In the proposed method it is shown that an appropriate value of initial position for the virtual target in 3-D, combined with optimized virtual target parameters, can significantly improve the launch envelope performance. The paper presents the formulation of the optimization problem, obtains the approximate models used to make the optimization problem more tractable, and finally presents the optimized performance of the missile in terms of launch envelope and shows significant improvement over kinematic-based guidance laws. The paper also proposes modification to the basic VST scheme. Some simulations using the full-fledged six degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) models are also presented to validate the models and technique used.