Two-phase guidance law for impact time control under physical constraints

An impact-time-control guidance law is required for the simultaneous attack of suicide attack unmanned aerial vehicles. Based on the nonlinear model, a two-phase guidance strategy is proposed. The impact time is derived in a simple analytical form of initial states and switching states, and it can be controlled by switching at an appropriate range. Firstly, a two-phase guidance law is designed to make the magnitude of the heading error decrease monotonically from its initial value to zero. And then, the feasible interval of the switching ranges and of the impact times under the acceleration constraint are given analytically in sequence. Furthermore, a general form of two-phase guidance law is proposed, which allows the magnitude of the heading error to increase in the first phase, to improve the applicability of the methodology. Having the same structure as proportional navigation guidance with a time-varying gain, the proposed algorithms are simple and easy to implement. The corresponding feedback form is presented for realistic implementation. When a predefined impact time is taken within its permissible set, the constraints on the acceleration and field-of-view will not be violated during the interception. Finally, simulations validate the effectiveness of the methodology in impact time control and salvo attack.