An enhanced terminal guidance law for short-range aerial vehicles with impact angle constraints and aerodynamic uncertainty

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Abstract

In terminal guidance for short-range aerial vehicles, especially in scenarios involving attacks on maritime targets, ensuring the required approach angle is a decisive factor in mission effectiveness. The same vehicle can be significantly more effective when approaching the target at the correct angle than when merely reaching the correct position without satisfying the desired approach-angle condition. However, this requirement is difficult to fulfill in practice because of the combined effects of continuously varying sea-surface winds and aerodynamic uncertainties when the vehicle operates in low-dynamic-pressure conditions near the sea surface. This paper proposes a terminal guidance law for short-range aerial vehicles employing a skid-to-turn control configuration, in which the approach trajectory is regenerated at each guidance cycle in the form of a second- or third-order Bézier curve, while simultaneously satisfying both positional and angular constraints at the terminal point. Based on this reference trajectory, the required velocity-direction rates are transformed into commands for the angle of attack, α, and the sideslip angle, β, through a closed-form dynamic-inversion step. Monte Carlo simulation results obtained using the reference model show that the proposed method achieves a circular error probable of less than 1 m and a terminal flight-path-angle error of less than 1.5 degrees, while maintaining robustness against uncertainties in wind, atmospheric density, and aerodynamic coefficients.