Agile Missile Controller Based on Adaptive Nonlinear Backstepping Control

TL;DR

This paper presents an adaptive nonlinear backstepping control approach for agile missile autopilot design, addressing highly nonlinear dynamics and uncertainties during agile turns through trajectory optimization and a combined control scheme.

Contribution

It introduces a novel adaptive backstepping autopilot for agile missiles that effectively manages nonlinearities and uncertainties during rapid maneuvers.

Findings

Successful angle-of-attack tracking demonstrated

Enhanced robustness against aerodynamic uncertainties

Effective handling of nonlinear missile dynamics

Abstract

This paper deals with a nonlinear adaptive autopilot design for agile missile systems. In advance of the autopilot design, an investigation of the agile turn maneuver, based on the trajectory optimization, is performed to determine state behaviors during the agile turn phase. This investigation shows that there exist highly nonlinear, rapidly changing dynamics and aerodynamic uncertainties. To handle of these difficulties, we propose a longitudinal autopilot for angle-of-attack tracking based on backstepping control methodology in conjunction with the time-delay adaptation scheme.