Disturbance observer-based robust missile autopilot design with full-state constraints via adaptive dynamic programming

This paper aims to develop a robust optimal control method for longitudinal dynamics of missile systems with full-state constraints suffering from mismatched disturbances by using adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) technique. First, the constrained states are mapped by smooth functions, thus, the considered systems become nonlinear systems without state constraints subject to unknown approximation error. In order to estimate the unknown disturbances, a nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO) is designed. Based on the output of disturbance observer, an integral sliding mode controller (ISMC) is derived to counteract the effects of disturbances and unknown approximation error, thus ensuring the stability of nonlinear systems. Subsequently, the ADP technique is utilized to learn an adaptive optimal controller for the nominal systems, in which a critic network is constructed with a novel weight update law. By utilizing the Lyapunov's method, the stability of the closed-loop system and the convergence of the estimation weight for critic network are guaranteed. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed controller are demonstrated by using longitudinal dynamics of a missile.