Impact of Controller Performance on the Process of Guiding an Armour-Piercing Missile onto a Ground-Based Target

Abstract

This work presents an analysis of guiding an anti-tank missile (ATGM) onto a ground-based target. The concept presented here is the feasibility of bypassing obstacles in the path of an ATGM when the obstacle coordinates are known prior to firing the ATGM weapon. The ATGM contemplated here uses a homing algorithm to calculate the stages of the ATGM flight path with the use of polynomial curves (including third-degree polynomial curves). The start and end coordinates of the polynomial curves are determined by the position of the obstacle(s) along the flight path. A method is presented for calculating the factors of subsequent flight path stages, along with a method of equating the ATGM kinematics and dynamics. A comparison is made between the operating efficiency of various configurations of a traditional proportional integral derivative (PID) controller, and at various gain factor values of the PID controller stages. The applied mathematical model of the ATGM are used in a series of numerical simulations for different take-off and in-flight conditions of the projectile. The simulation results are presented in a graphical form.

Keywords

• mechanical engineering
• anti-tank guided missile
• target
• homing
• controller