Impact angle control guidance synthesis for evasive maneuver against intercept missile

This paper proposes a synthesis of new guidance law to generate an evasive maneuver against enemy’s missile interception while considering its impact angle, acceleration, and field-of-view constraints. The first component of the synthesis is a new function of repulsive Artificial Potential Field to generate the evasive maneuver as a real-time dynamic obstacle avoidance. The terminal impact angle and terminal acceleration constraints compliance are based on Time-to-Go Polynomial Guidance as the second component. The last component is the Logarithmic Barrier Function to satisfy the field-of-view limitation constraint by compensating the excessive total acceleration command. These three components are synthesized into a new guidance law, which involves three design parameter gains. Parameter study and numerical simulations are delivered to demonstrate the performance of the proposed repulsive function and guidance law. Finally, the guidance law simulations effectively achieve the zero terminal miss distance, while satisfying an evasive maneuver against intercept missile, considering impact angle, acceleration, and field-of-view limitation constraints simultaneously

New design methodology for impact angle control guidance for various missile and target motions

This brief introduces a new design methodology for impact angle control guidance (IACG) laws. The proposed methodology can extend any proven homing guidance laws to their impact angle control versions if the expressions of the estimated terminal flight path angles under those guidance laws are given. The time derivatives of the estimated terminal flight path angles are obtained as functions of the guidance commands. The IACG versions of the homing guidance laws are derived from those functions and the desired error dynamics of the estimated terminal flight path angle. The guidance law of each IACG version has two terms: the first term maintains the characteristics and capturability of the original guidance law and the second term drives the estimated terminal flight path angle to converge to the specified flight path angle. When a well-understood homing guidance law for a certain combination of target and missile models is given, an IACG law for that combination is easily derived without reformulating the guidance problem again. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated by several examples, deriving new IACG laws for various target and missile models

Impact time control based on time-to-go prediction for sea-skimming antiship missiles

This paper proposes a novel approach for guidance law design to satisfy the impact-time constraints for a certain class of homing missiles. The proposed guidance law provides proper lateral acceleration commands that make the impact time error converge to zero by the time of impact. This scheme can be applied to any existing guidance law for which a formula of predicted time to go is available. Convergence of time-to-go errors is supported by Lyapunov stability. The optimal guidance law and the impact angle control guidance law are extended by the proposed method for impact-time-control guidance and impact-time-and-angle-control guidance, respectively. The performance of the extended guidance laws is demonstrated by numerical simulation

Performance of 3D PPN against arbitrarily maneuvering target for homing phase

The performance analysis of the 3-D pure proportional navigation (PPN) guidance law was traditionally conducted by considering the cross-coupling effect of two independent 2-D PPN laws in the pitch and yaw planes. This could increase the complexity of the analysis and lead to conservative analysis results, especially when the target has maneuverability. To mitigate this issue, this article theoretically analyzes the performance of 3-D PPN directly on a rotating engagement plane using a Lyapunov-like approach. Considering practical issues, the analysis includes not only capturability, but also upper-bounds of heading error, line-of-sight rate, commanded acceleration, and closing speed. The analysis results obtained are also demonstrated by using numerical simulation examples. Compared to the previous studies providing the least conservative results, the analysis procedure is significantly simplified and the results are proven to be more practical and less conservativ

Parameter-robust linear quadratic Gaussian technique for multi-agent slung load transportation

This paper copes with parameter-robust controller design for transportation system by multiple unmanned aerial vehicles. The transportation is designed in the form of string connection. Minimal state-space realization of slung-load dynamics is obtained by Newtonian approach with spherical coordinates. Linear quadratic Gaussian / loop transfer recovery (LQG/LTR) is implemented to control the position and attitude of all the vehicles and payloads. The controller's robustness against variation of payload mass is improved using parameter-robust linear quadratic Gaussian (PRLQG) method. Numerical simulations are conducted with several transportation cases. The result verifies that LQG/LTR shows fast performance while PRLQG has its strong point in robustness against system variation

Randomized Trial of Stents Versus Bypass Surgery for Left Main Coronary Artery Disease 5-Year Outcomes of the PRECOMBAT Study

AbstractBackgroundIn a previous randomized trial, we found that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was not inferior to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for the treatment of unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis at 1 year.ObjectivesThis study sought to determine the 5-year outcomes of PCI compared with CABG for the treatment of unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis.MethodsWe randomly assigned 600 patients with unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis to undergo PCI with a sirolimus-eluting stent (n = 300) or CABG (n = 300). The primary endpoint was a major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular event (MACCE: a composite of death from any cause, myocardial infarction, stroke, or ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization) and compared on an intention-to-treat basis.ResultsAt 5 years, MACCE occurred in 52 patients in the PCI group and 42 patients in the CABG group (cumulative event rates of 17.5% and 14.3%, respectively; hazard ratio [HR]: 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.84 to 1.90; p = 0.26). The 2 groups did not differ significantly in terms of death from any cause, myocardial infarction, or stroke as well as their composite (8.4% and 9.6%; HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.52 to 1.52; p = 0.66). Ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization occurred more frequently in the PCI group than in the CABG group (11.4% and 5.5%, respectively; HR: 2.11; 95% CI: 1.16 to 3.84; p = 0.012).ConclusionsDuring 5 years of follow-up, our study did not show significant difference regarding the rate of MACCE between patients who underwent PCI with a sirolimus-eluting stent and those who underwent CABG. However, considering the limited power of our study, our results should be interpreted with caution. (Bypass Surgery Versus Angioplasty Using Sirolimus-Eluting Stent in Patients With Left Main Coronary Artery Disease [PRECOMBAT]; NCT00422968

Reconstruction of High-Frequency Lunar Digital Elevation Model using Shape from Shading

This paper deals with a procedure to reconstruct a lunar surface based on fusion of Shape from Shading with absolute depth information exploited from Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter data. The generation of accurate lunar digital elevation model which contains altitude and terrain shape of mission area is critical for lunar exploration mission design. The photoclinometric approach with Shape from Shading yields dense, high-frequency information while range scanning data from Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter complements the photoclinometric reconstruction with low-frequency, large scale reliable depth information. The proposed Shape from Shading algorithm utilizes the laser altimetry data as initial guess and iteratively calculates the high-frequency altitude information from high resolution image. The high-frequency depth variation caused by small crater and boulder is recovered by applying Shape from Shading