Cooperative guidance for multiple powered missiles with constrained impact and bounded speed

In this paper, a cooperative guidance law is proposed for missiles with thrust control to realize impact angle constrained salvo attack, where missile speed limit is also considered. Guidance of a powered missile is decoupled into independent flight direction control with normal acceleration as an input to realize impact angle control/constrained guidance (IACG) and cooperative flight speed control with engine thrust as an input to realize salvo attack. Firstly, an IACG law is derived from a geometrically modified proportional navigation guidance. The trajectory shape and length under this proposed IACG law are proved to be independent of missile speed variation. Then a cooperative missile thrust control (CMTC) law is designed from a constrained consensus algorithm to cooperate remaining trajectory lengths without exceeding missile speed limit. Simplified aerodynamic and engine models of a missile are used in CMTC law design. The lower and upper bounds of speed are considered according to missile maneuverability and limited maximum engine thrust. Multimissile salvo attack with impact angle and time constraints is achieved through the combination of IACG and CMTC. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed cooperative guidance law.