Missile Navigation Research Articles

An Inline V-Band WR-15 Transition Using Antipodal Dipole Antenna as RF Energy Launcher @ 60 GHz for Satellite Applications

This article demonstrates the design and development of WR-15 transition using an antipodal microstrip dipole antenna at a frequency of 60 GHz for space applications. An inline microstrip line to rectangular waveguide (MS-to-RWG) transition is proposed for the V-band (50–75 GHz) functioning. The RF energy is coupled and launched through an antipodal dipole microstrip antenna. Impedance matching and mode matching between the MS line and dipole are achieved by a quarter wave impedance transformer. This results in the better performance of transitions in terms of insertion loss (IL > −0.50 dB) and return loss (RL < −10 dB) for a 40.76% relative bandwidth from 55.57 GHz to 65.76 GHz. The lowest values of IL and RL at 60 GHz are −0.09 dB and −32.05 dB, respectively. A 50 μm thick double-sided etched InP substrate material is used for microstrip antipodal dipole antenna design. A back-to-back designed transition has IL > −0.70 dB and RL < −10 dB from 54.29 GHz to 64.07 GHz. The inline transition design is simple in structure, easy to fabricate, robust, compact, and economic; occupies less space because the transition size is exactly equal to the WR-15 length; and is prepared using an InP substrate with high permittivity of 12.4 and thickness of 50 μm. Thus, the devices have the lowest insertion loss value and lowest return loss (RL) value, of <−31 dB, as compared to earlier designs in the literature. Therefore, the proposed design has the lowest radiation loss (because of thickness) and highest transmission (about 97% power). Easy impedance matching using only a single-step quarter-wave transformer between the antipodal dipole antenna and 50 Ω microstrip line (avoiding the multi-sections’ demand and microstrip line’s tedious complexity) is needed. Since, when the InP dielectric substrate is inserted in WR-15, the waveguide becomes a dielectric-filled waveguide (DFWG), and its characteristics impedance reduces to 143 Ω from 505 Ω at an operating frequency of 60 GHz. In the proposed transition, no ridge waveguide or waveguide back-short is utilized in WR-15. The microstrip line did not contain any via, fence, window, screw, galvanic structure, post, etc. Hence, the transition is suitable for high-data-rate 5G communications, satellite remote sensing, missile navigation, MIC/MMIC circuits’ characterization, and mm-wave applications. The electrical equivalent model of the proposed design has been generated and validated using an RF circuit simulator and was found to have excellent matching.

Modeling and Analysis of Meteorological Contour Matching with Remote Sensor Data for Navigation

This paper outlines the methods, results, and statistical analysis of a model we developed to demonstrate the feasibility of applying remote sensor meteorological data to navigation by using meteorological contour matching (METCOM). Terrain contour matching (TERCOM), a contemporary navigation system, possesses inherent performance flaws that may be resolved and improved by METCOM for subsonic and hypersonic missile or aircraft navigation. Remote sensor imagery data for this model was accessed from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites-R Series operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by using Amazon Web Services through a script we developed in Python. Data processed for the model included imagery data and corresponding geospatial data from the legacy atmospheric profile products: legacy vertical temperature and legacy vertical moisture. Our analysis of the model included an error assessment to determine model accuracy, geostatistical analysis through semivariograms, meteorological signal of model data, and a combinatorial analysis to evaluate navigation performance. We conducted a model assessment which indicated an accuracy of 66.2% in the data used as a combined result of instrument error and interference of cloud formations. Results of the remaining analysis offered methods to evaluate METCOM performance and compare different meteorological data products. These results allowed us to statistically compare METCOM and TERCOM, yielding several indications of improved performance including an increase by a factor of at least 13.5 in data variability and contourability. The analysis we conducted served as a proof of concept to justify further research into the feasibility and application of METCOM.

The problem of block synthesis of missile preparation and start-up control system for missile complexes

According to the analysis of trends in the use and development of missile weapons, it is shown that in the coming decades such weapons (missile, anti-aircraft missile, anti-ship systems) will remain one of the main units of the armed forces of the advanced countries. At the same time, in the conditions of independent Ukraine there is a need to create its own production of appropriate samples in a “closed cycle”. The synthesis of such weapons includes conducting comprehensive research on the principles of construction and operation of their basic elements, namely: substantiation of algorithms for launch equipment, control systems and navigation of missiles. The article deals with an example of a general solution to the problem.

The problem of block synthesis of missile preparation and start-up control system for missile complexes

According to the analysis of trends in the use and development of missile weapons, it is shown that in the coming decades such weapons (missile, anti-aircraft missile, anti-ship systems) will remain one of the main units of the armed forces of the advanced countries. At the same time, in the conditions of independent Ukraine there is a need to create its own production of appropriate samples in a “closed cycle”. The synthesis of such weapons includes conducting comprehensive research on the principles of construction and operation of their basic elements, namely: substantiation of algorithms for launch equipment, control systems and navigation of missiles. The article deals with an example of a general solution to the problem.

Infrared focal plane array attitude measurement method based on adaptive fault-tolerant extended Kalman filter

To improve the anti-jamming ability of infrared attitude measurement methods, the infrared focal plane array (IRFPA) fault diagnosis method was investigated with regard to small-region and full-region infrared interference, respectively. An adaptive fault-tolerant extended Kalman filter algorithm is proposed to actively remove the infrared interference data in the case of small-region infrared interference and carry out attitude estimation with the mathematical model under full-region infrared interference. The results reveal that the adaptive fault-tolerant extended Kalman filter has stronger anti-jamming ability compared with the conventional extended Kalman filter. Additionally, the adaptive fault-tolerant extended Kalman filter can maintain the attitude estimation accuracy of ±0.8° when full-region infrared interference doesn't exist or if most IRFPA data are reliable. Apart from missile navigation, the framework of the adaptive fault-tolerant extended Kalman filter can be applied to almost all applications using extended Kalman filter, such as aircraft, vehicular navigation, indoor positioning, and target tracking, etc.

Hardware in the loop simulation for homing missiles

In this paper, we present a new method of testing the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system of missiles with homing guidance based on image processing homing head. Testing of the GNC system of the homing missile is usually carried out on a five axis or three axis motion simulator in the hardware in the loop (HWIL) environment. HWIL testing on a five axis motion simulator is applicable to all guidance systems regardless of the type of detector used in the homing head, but equipping the laboratory is at least two times more expensive compared to the new method of testing presented here. The goal of this paper is to present a relatively cheap, simple and effective way of testing the guidance systems in cases when the type of detector used in the homing head is either television (TV) or Infra-Red (IR) camera, more precisely when image processing homing heads are used.

Experimental Evaluation of Certain Pursuit and Evasion Schemes for Wheeled Mobile Robots

Pursuit-evasion games involving mobile robots provide an excellent platform to analyze the performance of pursuit and evasion strategies. Pursuit-evasion has received considerable attention from researchers in the past few decades due to its application to a broad spectrum of problems that arise in various domains such as defense research, robotics, computer games, drug delivery, cell biology, etc. Several methods have been introduced in the literature to compute the winning chances of a single pursuer or single evader in a two-player game. Over the past few decades, proportional navigation guidance (PNG) based methods have proved to be quite effective for the purpose of pursuit especially for missile navigation and target tracking. However, a performance comparison of these pursuer-centric strategies against recent evader-centric schemes has not been found in the literature, for wheeled mobile robot applications. With a view to understanding the performance of each of the evasion strategies against various pursuit strategies and vice versa, four different proportional navigation-based pursuit schemes have been evaluated against five evader-centric schemes and vice-versa for non-holonomic wheeled mobile robots. The pursuer′s strategies include three well-known schemes namely, augmented ideal proportional navigation guidance (AIPNG), modified AIPNG, angular acceleration guidance (AAG), and a recently introduced pursuer-centric scheme called anticipated trajectory-based proportional navigation guidance (ATPNG). Evader-centric schemes are classic evasion, random motion, optical-flow based evasion, Apollonius circle based evasion and another recently introduced evasion strategy called anticipated velocity based evasion. The performance of each of the pursuit methods was evaluated against five different evasion methods through hardware implementation. The performance was analyzed in terms of time of interception and the distance traveled by players. The working environment was obstacle-free and the maximum velocity of the pursuer was taken to be greater than that of the evader to conclude the game in finite time. It is concluded that ATPNG performs better than other PNG-based schemes, and the anticipated velocity based evasion scheme performs better than the other evasion schemes.

Maximum Correntropy Unscented Kalman Filter for Ballistic Missile Navigation System based on SINS/CNS Deeply Integrated Mode

Strap-down inertial navigation system/celestial navigation system (SINS/CNS) integrated navigation is a high precision navigation technique for ballistic missiles. The traditional navigation method has a divergence in the position error. A deeply integrated mode for SINS/CNS navigation system is proposed to improve the navigation accuracy of ballistic missile. The deeply integrated navigation principle is described and the observability of the navigation system is analyzed. The nonlinearity, as well as the large outliers and the Gaussian mixture noises, often exists during the actual navigation process, leading to the divergence phenomenon of the navigation filter. The new nonlinear Kalman filter on the basis of the maximum correntropy theory and unscented transformation, named the maximum correntropy unscented Kalman filter, is deduced, and the computational complexity is analyzed. The unscented transformation is used for restricting the nonlinearity of the system equation, and the maximum correntropy theory is used to deal with the non-Gaussian noises. Finally, numerical simulation illustrates the superiority of the proposed filter compared with the traditional unscented Kalman filter. The comparison results show that the large outliers and the influence of non-Gaussian noises for SINS/CNS deeply integrated navigation is significantly reduced through the proposed filter.

Modelling and Comparison of Tracking Loops for GPS Signal

Nowadays, Global Positioning System (GPS) applications are widely spread and affect all aspects of our modern lives. They can be found in many different fields, such as aviation, environment, marine, space, surveying, mapping, and military operations. In military, the GPS is employed in missile guidance, vessels and aircraft navigation, location, communication network timing, etc. The GPS receiver is required to be more and more robust to withstand harsh condition, for example losing signal or jamming. This paper demonstrates the implementation and simulation of an advanced tracking technique that is used in modern GPS receivers - a vector tracking loop. Brief related principles of a GPS receiver are introduced. The principle of traditional tracking loop is shown and compared to the vector tracking loop. An extended Kalman filter is employed as a vector tracking algorithm. The extended Kalman filter uses pseudo range rate, which is computed from both the code and the carrier to constrain the receiver velocity. The acquired results are compared and advantages of the vector tracking algorithm against the traditional tracking loop are presented in this paper, including characteristics of the vector tracking loop.

USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS FOR FORCASTING WIND SPEED CHANGES IN THE CITY OF KERMAN

Abstract. Nowadays, taking advantage of renewable energies has increased in order to produce electric energy. Wind energy is one of renewable energies which has been the center of attention in industrial communities. Correct wind –speed forecast has a considerable number of applications in military and civilian affairs for air traffic control, missile , and ship navigation .Furthermore, forecasting wind-speed changes has also become important due to controlling appropriate reactions in wind turbines in order to prevent sudden shocks and take advantage of maximum capacity of wind turbines .According to inevitable role of wind energy in the future, the capability to predict this energy can play a noticeable role on related predictions of production or electricity energy buying and selling as a result of substantial effect on energy final price .In this study , considering one-year collected data of wind speed and temperature in one meteorology station in Kerman, one applied model has been recommended for forecasting wind speed using artificial neural network.

Satellite Clock Error and Orbital Solution Error Estimation for Precise Navigation Applications

Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that provides a three-dimensional user position (x,y,z), velocity and time anywhere on or above the earth surface. The satellite-based position accuracy is affected by several factors such as satellite clock error, propagation path delays and receiver noise due to which the GPS does not meet the requirements of critical navigation applications such as missile navigation and category I/II/III aircraft landings. This paper emphasizes on modelling the satellite clock error and orbital solution (satellite position) error considering the signal emission time. The transmission time sent by each satellite in broadcast ephemerides is not accurate. This has to be corrected in order to obtain correct satellite position and in turn a precise receiver position. Signal transmission time or broadcast time from satellite antenna phase center is computed at the receiver using several parameters such as signal reception time, propagation time, pseudorange observed and satellite clock error correction parameters. This corrected time of transmission and broadcast orbital parameters are used for estimation of the orbital solution. The estimated orbital solution was validated with the precise ephemerides which are estimated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), USA. The errors are estimated for a typical day data collected on 11th March 2011 from dual frequency GPS receiver located at Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Andhra University College of Engineering, Visakhapatnam (17.73°N/83.319°E).

Baffle design and evaluation of the effect of different parameters on its performance

Stars have been used for ship navigation from ancient times. Polaris is one of the most common astronomical objects that was used for this purpose. In the present age, star sensors are devices that use position of stars for guidance, navigation and control of spacecraft, satellites, missiles and aircraft. Star sensor includes parts such as microcomputers, frame digitizer, software that includes a star catalog in the star sensor that is saved in the memory, optical system and baffle. Baffle surrounds the optical system to prevent stray radiation coming from the off axis bright objects such as the Earth, Sun and Moon entering the detector and creating intense noise. In this paper, the effect of various parameters such as the coefficient of root mean square roughness, vane angle, and vane depth will be discussed.

Dynamic Target Tracking Based on Particle Filter in Actual Environment

With the development of science and technology, target tracking was applied to many aspects of people's life, such as missile navigation, tanks localization, the plot monitoring system, robot field operation. Particle filter method dealing with the nonlinear and non-Gaussian system was widely used due to the complexity of the actual environment. This paper uses the resampling technology to reduce the particle degradation appeared in our test. Meanwhile, it compared particle filter with Kalman filter to observe their accuracy .The experiment results show that particle filter is more suitable for complex scene, so particle filter is more practical and feasible on target tracking.

Viewpoint: International Traffic in Arms Regulations—Controversy and Reform

The International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) have, for decades, played a crucial role in shaping the movement of sensitive technology from the United States to the world. Originally intended to ensure military dominance, the ITAR regime is seen by some as stifling the competitiveness of American industry. A list known as the United States Munitions List (USML) contains the items subject to the ITAR export controls. This list includes clearly dangerous military technology such as missile navigation systems and fighter jet avionics but also includes seemingly benign items, such as coolant hoses or tape recorders for spacecraft. Among the items considered controversial are a number related to the space industry. An incident in the early 1990s began a jurisdictional tug of war. The United States strengthened its grip on the export of space technology. In the last two decades, some have observed a decline in the competitiveness of American industry. The content of the USML should be reviewed based not on the historical “catchall” approach, but rather based on a “military intent-based” or “military capability-based” approach. This will improve the competitiveness of the U.S. space industry without sacrificing national security.

Strategic inertial navigation systems - high-accuracy inertially stabilized platforms for hostile environments

This article provides an overview of the technical challenges and solutions for ISP designers for strategic inertial navigation systems (INSs). The design descriptions herein are mostly generic, with occasional references to existing or past strategic systems. The article discusses four primary topics, namely, system design options, environments and mitigation techniques, preflight calibration and alignment (C&A) in-flight navigation mechanizations, and test and verification. IEEE standard terminology of inertial sensors and inertial systems is used throughout the article. The best-known application of ISPs is stabilization and control of payloads such as electro-optical sensors and laser beams. Perhaps less well known is that ISPs are used in a variety of aircraft and missile navigation systems. With the introduction of digital computers, the breadth of application of ISPs for navigation began to diminish, and strapdown INS became prevalent. This trend has accelerated with the navigation aiding of the global positioning system (GPS), which can render a strapdown inertial measurement unit (IMU) more accurate than the best ISPs. Today, only self-contained precision navigation systems use ISPs. Strategic navigation systems are among this small group.

Endgame Guidance and Relative Navigation of Strategic Interceptors with Delays

This paper is concerned with endgame guidance and relative navigation of strategic missiles equipped with divert thrusters to intercept nonmaneuvering reentry vehicles. The paper has three objectives: 1) demonstrate superiority of predictive guidance to pulsed proportional navigation guidance; 2) devise compensation for a onesample delay in arrival of line-of-sight (LOS) angle measurements at Kalman-filter module and another one-sample delay in communication of LOS rate estimates to the guidance module; and 3) develop a Kalman filter insensitive to modeling errors for relative navigation. A hybrid Kalman filter is developed for relative navigation with angle measurements—hybrid because relative position and velocity vectors are propagated in Cartesian coordinates, whereas the error covariance is propagated, and updated at the time of measurement, in spherical coordinates. For spherical computations, a time-to-go dependent transition matrix and a time-to-go dependent process noise matrix are formulated. It is shown that these time-to-go dependent matrices reduce the miss distance and its sensitivity to modeling errors. With this Kalman filter, it is shown that the closed-loop predictive guidance yields smaller miss distance, consumes less fuel, and requires fewer divert firings than the pulsed proportional navigation guidance does. The delay compensation is accomplished in two steps: first, the high-frequency stream of ∆V measurements from an accelerometer is stored and synchronized with the delayed LOS angle measurement from the seeker; second, the delayed LOS rate estimate from the Kalman filter is propagated forward using the measured ∆V that transpires during the delay. The miss distance of the zero-delay level and robustness to modeling errors is shown to be almost recovered.

Tightly coupled GPS/INS integration for missile applications

An approach to enhance the performance of tightly coupled GPS/INS systems is described. First, the advantages of tightly coupled systems compared to loosely coupled systems are clarified. Then, it is shown in hardware-in-the-loop tests and in a test drive that processing time differenced carrier phase measurements instead of delta-range measurements results in an increased velocity and attitude accuracy for the tightly coupled system, which is of great importance in the beginning of a time interval with purely inertial navigation, e.g. when GPS is lost due to jamming. A measurement equation is derived allowing to process the time differenced carrier phase measurements in the navigation Kalman filter. Finally, the proposed method is applied to missile navigation systems, where significant vibrations enter the inertial sensor data.

Image analysis for airborne reconnaissance and missile applications

This paper describes how the pulse coupled neural network (PCNN) can be used in various image analysis applications. We especially focus on two time-critical applications, in particular, airborne reconnaissance and missile navigation. Today, biologically inspired sensor analysis systems such as the PCNN can be used in many different applications related to these two major applications. New ideas are shown on how to use PCNN in combination with other image processing transforms, e.g. the Radon transform and foveation point detection to solve image interpretation and missile navigation problems. This includes solving tasks such as image segmentation, object detection and target identification. Finally, a VHDL implementation of the PCNN targeting FPGA is presented.

High-g Barrel Roll Maneuvers Against Proportional Navigation from Optimal Control Viewpoint

Our previous studies showed that the high- g barrel roll (HGB) maneuver generally produces very large miss distanceagainstproportionalnavigationmissiles.Theperformanceofthismaneuverisdiscussedfromtheviewpoint of optimal control. Numerically obtained three-dimensional optimal evasive maneuvers of a e ghter against a proportional navigation missile were those of vertical-S type and horizontal-S type, which are two dimensional in nature. It is shown that the HGB is regarded as a kind of approximation of these optimal maneuvers; however, the HGB is easier to implement than the optimal maneuvers, and we may still insist on the practical effectiveness of the HGB. Nomenclature acmax = missile lateral acceleration command limit ap, ay, apc, ayc = missile pitch- and yaw-axis lateral accelerations and their command signals at = aircraft normal acceleration g = acceleration of gravity h = altitude

Root-mean-square miss distance of proportional navigation missile against sinusoidal target

The performance of a proportional navigation homing missile against a target performing a sinusoidal weave maneuver is evaluated. The missile's effectiveness is measured in terms of the root-mean-square miss distance over a set of engagements in which the initial phase of the target weave is uniformly distributed. Closed form solutions for the root-mean-square miss are derived for the case where the missile guidance system is modeled by a first-order lag and the lateral acceleration is unlimited. The analysis is then extended to include the effects of acceleration saturation and higher order missile dynamics. Comparisons are made between a first-order and a fifth-order guidance system, and the root-mean-square miss is determined numerically as a function of the interceptor's effective navigation gain, time constant and acceleration limit, and the target's weave amplitude and frequency. UTURE homing interceptor missiles will face new and unique challenges as the sophistication of the threat spectrum in- creases. Engagements against air targets can occur at both very low and very high altitudes, with the threats accidentally or intentionally performing weaving or spiraling maneuvers during their midcourse and terminal phases.14 The lateral displacement, acceleration ca- pability, and weave frequency of the target maneuver can greatly enhance the threat's ability to survive a counterattack. To counter this, the defensive missile must have sufficient lateral acceleration, guidance system time constant, and terminal homing time to achieve a high probability of intercept. Whereas the per- formance of the interceptor will be influenced by many scenario- dependent factors,58 a major consideration will be the fundamental response of the proportional navigation (PN) guidance system to the postulated target weave motion.9'10 In the general case, the target dynamics may involve arbitrary periodic motion in three dimensions. A useful starting point for analysis, however, is the response of the PN homing system to a single plane sinusoidal maneuver of constant amplitude and fre- quency. The phase angle of target weave, which is associated with initial conditions at the start of the missile's terminal guidance, can be treated as a random variable, uniformly distributed between 0 and 2n over a set of engagements. The missile's dynamics are approxi- mated by a simple first-order transfer function, and unlimited lateral acceleration capability is assumed. The miss distance can then be parameterized in terms of the effective PN navigation gain N, the missile time constant T, and the amplitude AT and frequency co of the target weave. This paper focuses on root-mean-square (rms) miss distance as a recommended measure of effectiveness in analyzing missile perfor- mance against weaving targets. This measure allows uncertainties in target phase characteristics to be accounted for in the terminal per- formance results. The weaving target problem was first addressed by Chadwick, 9 who determined analytical expressions for the rms miss distance of the single lag PN missile for values of N =2 and 3. Zarchan 10 employed adjoint theory and transfer function tech- niques to determine formulas for the peak miss distance against a weaving target for values of N between 3 and 6. The present paper derives general closed-form expressions for the rms miss distance against a sinusoidal target. New results are obtained for arbitrary