In-Flight Radome Slope Estimation for Homing Guidance Using Bearing-Only Measurement via Gaussian Process Regression

Abstract

The radome refraction problem gives rise to guidance performance deterioration for homing missiles. Aiming to eliminate the effect of radome refraction on the radar seeker, a novel method is proposed for correcting the radome-induced measurement error by using the estimated guidance information. A dynamic model for the estimation system is formulated and the guidance information is estimated online via a multiple-model filtering framework. A Gaussian process regression scheme is introduced to reconstruct the mapping model with respect to the radome error and look angle. Furthermore, an analytical expression for radome slope estimation is derived by calculating the derivative of the surrogate function, represented with Gaussian process models. The contaminated measurement is corrected based on the estimated guidance information and radome slope. Extensive simulation results illustrate that the proposed method is able to estimate the radome slope accurately and improve the guidance accuracy effectively.