On the generalization of true proportional navigation

Abstract

A simple framework to define generalized true proportional navigation (GTPN) guidance laws is presented. It is shown that this framework subsumes many of the generalizations presented in the earlier literature. The capture regions of a number of GTPN guidance laws are obtained through a rigorous qualitative analysis. The method of analysis is simpler and lends itself directly to an easy geometrical interpretation. A considerable amount of misinterpretation in the previous results, arising out of certain basic misconceptions, are corrected here. It is shown that a logical application of the guidance philosophy, through a minor modification of GTPN to take into account the direction of rotation of the line-of-sight (LOS), contributes substantially to the expansion of the capture region in the relative velocity space. In particular, it is shown that the capture region also extends to the negative closing velocity region, thus making the modified GTPN almost comparable, so far as the domain of capturability of guidance laws is concerned, to the pure proportional navigation (PPN) guidance law. A number of new results on the exact bounds on the capture region are derived and illustrated through examples.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>