Analyzing Errors in Controlled Turret System

TL;DR

This paper characterizes aiming errors in controlled turret systems by analyzing the effects of parameter estimation errors and control strategies on accuracy for stationary and moving targets.

Contribution

It develops a mathematical model and compares PID and Model Predictive controllers, highlighting the impact of system errors and control choices on turret accuracy.

Findings

Turret movement is more sensitive to errors in moment of inertia.

Accuracy improves with longer wait times before firing.

Integral control enhances accuracy in moving target scenarios.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to characterize aiming errors in controlled weapon systems given target location as input. To achieve this objective, we analyze the accuracy of a controlled weapon system model for stationary and moving targets under different error sources and firing times. First, we develop a mathematical model of a gun turret and use it to design two controllers, a Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller and a Model Predictive controller, which accept the target location input and move the turret to the centroid of the target in simulations. For stationary targets, we analyze the impact of errors in estimating the system's parameters and uncertainty in the aim point measurement. Our results indicate that turret movement is more sensitive to errors in the moment of inertia than the damping coefficient, which could lead to incorrect simulations of controlled turret system accuracy. The results also support the hypothesis that turret movement errors are larger over longer distances of gun turret movement and, assuming no time constraints, accuracy improves the longer one waits to fire; though this may not always be practical in a combat scenario. Additionally, we demonstrate that the integral control component is needed for high accuracy in moving target scenarios.