Attitude control of multirotor with image-aided terminal guidance for precision target strike

Precise long-range strikes using multirotors equipped with rigidly fixed Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) encounter multiple challenges, including platform disturbances, inherent EFP dispersion characteristics, and visual-control coupling during large maneuvers. To address these issues, this paper proposes an attitude control method based on image-aided terminal guidance. Firstly, a multi-physics coupling model incorporating EFP dispersion is constructed to derive the control boundary conditions. Subsequently, a singularity-free target feature representation characterized by quaternions is established using spherical projection. On this basis, an attitude controller combining Non-singular Terminal Sliding Mode (NTSM) control and a Super-Twisting Observer (STO) is designed. NTSM aims to achieve fast, finite-time convergence of attitude errors. STO is used to estimate and compensate for lumped disturbances in real-time, including wind gusts, unmodeled dynamics, and parameter uncertainties, thereby enhancing system robustness. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated by three kinds of experiments. The comparison with the traditional striking methods is conducted to prove the advantages of the proposed method in terms of strike performance. The dynamic target striking simulations are used to validate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed method under challenging conditions. The comparative simulations of different controllers are deployed to show the benefits of the proposed method in terms of convergence time, robustness and attitude control errors. The results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves the aiming accuracy and disturbance rejection capability for strikes, especially the engagement of dynamic targets.