Single‐range controller design for a cruise missile

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of a systematic single‐range controller design procedure to control a cruise missile.

Design/methodology/approach

The controller design approach is based on one describing function model of the missile followed by linear system identification. The missile includes discontinuous nonlinear terms, and therefore, a small signal model is not obtainable by straight linearization. Once a linear approximation to the quasilinear model of the missile is obtained, a H_∞ controller is designed to achieve a robust nonlinear closed‐loop system.

Findings

It is found that performance of the closed‐loop system with the applied simple controller design approach competes with one other complicated describing function‐based controller design technique.

Research limitations/implications

At present, the research is limited to design of linear H_∞ controllers.

Practical implications

The major outcome of this paper is the verification that the applied simple describing function‐based H_∞ controller design procedure may be used to design high‐performance controllers for cruise missiles.

Originality/value

This is the first paper that adopts an existing single‐range H_∞ controller design procedure to design high‐performance controllers for cruise missiles.

Citation

Nassirharand, A. and Mousavi Firdeh, S.R. (2009), "Single‐range controller design for a cruise missile", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 81 No. 4, pp. 283-287. https://doi.org/10.1108/00022660910967264