Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Introduction
Module 1: Lecture 1
What is Guidance?
Keywords. Guided missiles, Tactical missiles, Strategic missiles, SAM, AAM, ASM,
SSM
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
needs the help of human intelligence to achieve its mission. This human intelligence
manifests itself in various forms like gathering information about ight conditions,
generating appropriate commands to the ight vehicle, and designing equipments to
interpret these commands and translate them into action on-board. Each ight vehicle
has a mode of operation which might differ from another. For example, in a missile or a
launch vehicle, information is gathered by various sensors and conveyed to a computer
which then takes appropriate decisions. In an aircraft it is usually the human pilot who
takes decisions based upon similar information.
Irrespective of the kind of ight vehicle, the theory behind the design and analysis
of all these tasks eventually emanates from a branch of applied mathematics called
control theory. The application of control theory to aerospace may be divided into four
areas.
Flight path planning: This refers to the determination of a nominal ight path and
associated control histories for a given ight vehicle to accomplish specied objectives with specied constraints.
Navigation: The determination of a strategy for estimating the position of a vehicle
along the ight path, given the outputs from specied sensors.
Guidance: The determination of a strategy for following the nominal path in the
presence of off-nominal conditions, wind disturbances, and navigational uncertainties.
Control: The determination of a strategy for maintaining the angular orientation of
the vehicle during the ight that is consistent with the guidance strategy, and the
vehicle, crew, and passenger constraints.
However, it should be kept in mind that the boundaries between these four categories are not very sharp and they often overlap. For example, consider the aircraft
velocity and its angular orientation. These are coupled and so the guidance and control
of an aircraft must be considered together.
Since the focus of these lectures are mainly on guidance of ight vehicles, let us
dene the term guidance in an intuitively appealing manner:
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
When one object, based on information gathered from its environment, moves in such a
way that it comes closer and closer to another stationary or moving object (a goal point) then
we say that the object is guiding itself toward its goal point.
The basic questions that a guidance system designer addresses are the following:
What information do we need to collect from the environment?
How do we go about collecting this information?
How much can we trust the correctness of this information?
How do we use this information to achieve our goal? (This, in fact, is the main objective of
guidance!)
Is our capability sufcient to meet our goal?
How do we know if we have reached our goal or not?
Are there some secondary goals that we must keep in mind while trying to achieve our
primary goal? If yes, then how do we go about doing it?
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
accuracy.
A number of different classications of guided missiles are possible. However,
the most usual is the one in which the position of the launch point and the position of the
target are used as the basis for classication [see Locke (1955)]. This is the most widely
used classication as these positions more or less designate the general requirements
or specialities of the missiles used. The four general categories of missiles are :
Surface-to-Surface Missiles (SSM)
Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM)
Air-to-Air Missiles (AAM)
Air-to-Surface Missiles (ASM)
1.2.1 Surface-to-Surface Missiles
These missiles are launched from some point on the surface of the earth to another
point on the surface of the earth. They could also be launched from a ship. These missiles are usually employed against large and stationary targets. The range of the missile
and the type of warhead it uses depends on the kind of targets. The target could be a
small factory or a big city. The range could be as low as a few kilometers to as high as
thousands of kilometers. Though the terminal accuracy required of the missile guidance system is usually not much, the accuracy required for targets at long range must
be high compared to those required for short ranges. However, many recently designed
surface-to-surface missiles demand very high terminal accuracy. The accuracy of such
missiles depends, to a large extent, on the accuracy of determining the position of the
target with reference to some standard frame.
Missiles of this kind, by the very nature of their use, are offensive missiles. Missiles employed for long-range targets are also known as strategic missiles. Short Range,
Intermediate Range, and Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (SRBM, IRBM, and ICBM)
are some of the generic names (based on the range performance) of these missiles. Some
examples of this type of missiles are : CSS-3 ICBM (Country of origin : China, Maximum range : 7000 km), SS-18 Satan ICBM (CIS-formerly USSR, 12000 km), Minuteman
ICBM (USA, 12500 km).
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
There could be a further classication of SSMs as ballistic missiles (those which leave
the atmosphere after launch and y in a ballistic trajectory till re-entry into the atmosphere) and cruise missiles (which y at a relatively low altitude within the atmosphere).
1.2.2 Surface-to-Air Missiles
Any guided missile launched from a point on the surface of the earth to destroy a target in the air qualies for this category. The launch point, however, could be either
a ship or land. Here the targets are always in motion and quite often have considerable maneuvering capability. The guidance system must be accurate since the targets
are usually small in size, move at high speeds, and/or are capable of executing complicated
maneuvers (e.g., ghter aircraft, helicopters, SSMs). Thus, these missiles have support
equipments which continuously collect information about the current position and velocity of the target. The time available for the missile to destroy a ying target is usually
small and so the guidance system must be able to take appropriate actions in a short
period of time.
These missiles are normally used as defensive weapons. Some examples of such
missiles are : Gremlin SA-14 (CIS, 6 km), MANPADS (France, 4-6 km), Stinger (USA, 45
km), Patriot (USA, 160 km).
1.2.3 Air-to-Surface Missiles
These missiles are usually launched from an aircraft to destroy targets on the surface
of the earth. The targets could be moving (not at very high speeds) but are normally
stationary. The launch point (aircraft) is in motion. Hence, it is possible to search and
seek out targets whose positions or movements are not known beforehand. In other
words, the targets for such missiles are seldom predetermined as in the case of SSMs,
which means that the missile must have some means of seeking out these targets. This
causes the additional problems of avoiding spurious signals from the ground. Since
it is possible to come close to the target, accuracy can also be improved. However,
the launch point itself moves, and so the velocity and other dynamic properties of the
aircraft must be taken into account in the guidance system.
These missiles are primarily offensive weapons but can also be considered a defen-
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
sive weapon system depending on their actual use. Some examples are : Gabriel MK-III
(Israel, 40 km), HARM AGM-88A (USA, 25 km).
1.2.4 Air-to-Air Missiles
Here, both the launch point and the target are aircraft. These missiles are perhaps the
most difcult to design and build. Both aircraft are in motion at high speeds. They are also
capable of high maneuverability. Targets are small and difcult to locate. The guidance
system has to take into account all the factors mentioned for SAMs at the target end,
and those mentioned for ASMs at the launch end. In addition, the guidance system
should be such that it should not prevent the aircraft which launches the missile from
taking evasive actions for its own survival after the missile has been launched.
These missiles can be used both as offensive and defensive weapon systems. Some
examples are : Super 530 (France, 25 km), Ash AA-5 (CIS, 5-20 km), Sidewinder AIM-9
(USA, 5-15 km).
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
study the guidance laws that are used to guide these missiles and also study how these guidance
laws and the fundamental principles behind them can be used for building many systems that
have predominantly peaceful uses.
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
vides the basic framework for solving these important and practical problems in engineering. Below we shall list some of them.
1.5.1 Applications in Robotics
One of the major problems in robotics is that of path planning of robots to avoid stationary or moving obstacles as robots move about in their work environment. Avoidance of
obstacles basically involves the detection of the obstacle, prediction of its trajectory, and taking corrective actions to ensure that there is no collision. The rst two can be directly
identied with the intermediate goals in a guidance problem. The last is diametrically
opposite to what guidance has as a goal in fact, it is so diametrically opposite that the
principles of guidance are also applicable to it. We shall show how this is so toward the
end of these lectures.
But apart from collision avoidance, guidance also has applications in another sense
in the robotics path planning. Automated guided vehicles, often have the goal of going
from a start point to a goal or destination point. This also requires guidance. But note that
the guidance that an automated guided vehicle will require will be based on a different
kind of system model. When we talk of missiles we are talking about a ight vehicle
where we do not have much control over the longitudinal velocity of the vehicle but
only on its lateral motions through aerodynamic control. Whereas, when we speak of
an automated guided vehicle we are talking about a vehicle which moves on ground,
is subject to both longitudinal and lateral control, and accordingly requires guidance
which can be expressed in terms of a larger number of parameters.
1.5.2 Smart Cars on Smart Roads
One of the major problems faced in the western industrialized countries is the problem
of transportation of people and goods over the surface of the globe [Varaiya (19993)].
The need to transport people will reduce, to a large extent (and will hopefully cease to
be a problem!), by the tremendous technological advancements in telecommunications
and the creation of the information superhighway. This will most probably become a
workable reality by the turn of this century. But transportation of goods by the conventional means of railroad and highways will remain a necessary reality in the foreseeable
future. To improve the system of surface transportation there are massive projects being
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
undertaken to create what are known as smart cars on smart roads. The essential idea
behind these projects is to transfer the major part of the control of a car to an automatic
controller that will ensure that vehicles can move at tremendous speeds with very little
separation between them across long distances, on roads equipped with smart sensors.
For this we need sensors and other systems that can detect imminent collisions and
take fast corrective actions. These are objectives that are at the core of guidance theory
and its applications.
1.5.3 Docking of Spacecrafts
Docking is an operation by which one object xes itself in a certain way on to a larger
object. For example, docking of a ship in its wharf involves this kind of maneuvers.
In futuristic space stations docking of a spacecraft will be one of the most intricate
maneuvers that will be performed. A spacecraft as well as a space station normally has
many appendages (antennas, solar panels, solar shields, and so on) which give them
a somewhat unwieldy shape. These appendages make the docking operation more
complicated as the spacecraft has to avoid collision between two appendages and at the
same time perform maneuvers that would make the docking operation successful. This
problem is related to the path planning problem in robotics but combines the features
of space operations along with conventional robotics.
1.5.4 Terrain Avoidance
Helicopters and other low-ying vehicles have to detect and avoid the underlying terrain. They have to pass through mountain ranges where there is possibility of frontal
collision. To help the pilot in detecting and avoiding such collisions automatic pilot
advisory systems are built and put in the helicopter. There is considerable scope of
guidance theory being used, and is indeed being explored, for this kind of applications.
Assignment
1. Collect data about one missile each of the four category of missiles (AAM, ASM,
SAM, SSM). Do this for each of the following countries: India, USA, China, Rus-
10
Guidance of Missiles/NPTEL/2012/D.Ghose
sia, France, Germany, Pakistan. The data should cover standard information like
airframe conguration, size, weight, range, type of propulsion, etc.)
Use internet resources for this purpose. Wikipedia, Janes, etc., are standard web
resources. However, please mention the source from which you collect data. Always acknowledge the web source from which you have taken a picture to illustrate your data. This is ethical practice that must be followed.
Questions
1. A.E. B RYSON: New concepts in control theory, 1959-1984, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 417-425, July-August 1985.
2. P. G ARNELL AND D.J. E AST: Guided Weapon Control System, Pergamon Press, 1977.
3. A.S. L OCKE: Guidance, D. Van Nostrand Co., 1955.
4. R.G. L EE , C.A. S PARKES , D.E. J OHNSON: Guided Weapons, Brasseys Inc, 3rd Edition, 2000.
5. P. VARAIYA: Smart cars on smart roads: Problems of control, IEEE Transactions on
Automatic Control, Vol. 38, No. 2, February 1993, pp. 195-207.