Autopilot design for modern missiles

Concerns the finding of a design method for general cases of missile autopilot design, where yaw and roll control could not be treated as separate SISO systems. This posed the problem of not only finding a linear MIMO design which would be robust but would also be able to compensate for actuator rate and deflection limits safely. Counsell's methodology (1991) for wingless missiles is extended to provide faster and tighter noninteractive response. Furthermore, a criterion for safe control in the presence of gross actuator nonlinearities is described. This criterion is used to determine the maximum yaw rate which the missile can safely achieve. This extended MIMO design allows safe and optimum performance to be achieved with near complete decoupling of roll and yaw manoeuvres. >