Time-Constrained Interception of Seeker-Equipped Interceptors with Bounded Input

TL;DR

This paper introduces a nonlinear guidance law that ensures precise interception of stationary targets at a specified impact time, explicitly considering actuator and sensor constraints for improved effectiveness.

Contribution

It develops a guidance strategy that incorporates actuator bounds and seeker FOV constraints directly into the control law for time-critical interception.

Findings

Successfully achieves impact time accuracy in simulations

Outperforms existing guidance strategies under constraints

Effectively enforces actuator and sensor limitations

Abstract

This paper presents a nonlinear guidance scheme designed to achieve precise interception of stationary targets at a pre-specified impact time. The proposed strategy essentially accounts for the constraints imposed by the interceptor's seeker field-of-view (FOV) and actuator limitations, which, if ignored, can degrade guidance performance. To address these challenges, the guidance law incorporates known actuator bounds directly into its design, thereby improving overall interceptor effectiveness. The proposed method utilizes an input-affine magnitude saturation model to effectively enforce these constraints. By appending this input saturation model to the interceptor's kinematic equations, a guidance law is derived that ensures interception at the desired impact time while accounting for the physical constraints of the sensor and actuator. The efficacy of the proposed strategies is demonstrated through comprehensive numerical simulations across various scenarios and is compared against an existing guidance strategy.