Integrated missile guidance and control using optimization-based predictive control

This paper focuses on the design and implementation of optimization-based predictive control for the problem of missile interception. Due to the inherent nonlinearities of the missile–target dynamics or even constraints, it is usually difficult to design a high-accuracy and high-efficiency control algorithm. A nonlinear receding horizon pseudospectral control (RHPC) scheme is constructed and applied to generate the optimal control command. The problem of state estimation, in the presence of measurement noise, is solved by implementing a moving horizon estimation (MHE) algorithm. Since the RHPC and MHE algorithms solve the online open-loop optimal control problem at each sampling instant, the computational cost associated with them can be high. In order to decrease the computational demand due to the optimization process, a recently proposed nonlinear programming sensitivity-based algorithm is used and embedded in the optimization framework. Numerical simulations and analysis are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.