Guidance technology of specified direction and attitude for plane symmetrical aircraft with directed energy load constraint

Airborne directed energy weapons are one of the decisive factors to gain asymmetric advantages in future offensive and defensive confrontations. To address the problem of multiple constraints of the position, flight direction and bank attitude of the plane symmetrical aircraft under the requirement of effective damage to the target caused by directed energy load, a multiple constraint maneuvering guidance strategy with specified direction and attitude is proposed based on lateral acceleration compensation. The mission scenario of airborne directed energy loads attacking ground targets is described, and the maneuvering laws as well as constraints of position, flight direction and bank attitude of the plane symmetrical aircraft restricted by directed energy load are revealed. Based on the kinematic model and the multiple constraints such as position, specified direction and attitude of plane symmetrical aircrafts, the maneuvering guidance strategy of “virtual guidance- specified attitude attack” is designed to coordinate the imposed time and conditions of each constraint, which helps avoid the problem of command solution difficulty caused by excessive constraints. The coupling correlation characteristics existing in all constraints are analyzed, and a specified direction virtual guidance mechanism is proposed to guide the aircraft to the target on the specified course. On this basis, a specified direction and attitude maneuvering strategy with lateral acceleration compensation is proposed to actively generate the lateral acceleration for realizing dynamic balance of the aircraft, which can ensure that the plane symmetrical aircraft can simultaneously satisfy and maintain the heading angle as well as the bank angle constraints required for the normal operation of the directed energy load, and the directed energy load has sufficient irradiation time. The simulation results indicate that the proposed maneuvering guidance strategy based on lateral acceleration compensation can meet the requirements of the guidance mission with specified direction and attitude of the plane symmetrical aircraft restricted by directed energy load, and can provide certain reference for supporting the practical application of airborne directed energy weapons.