Scaling effects in guidance performance in confined environments

Scaling effects relating the maneuvering capabilities of a vehicle and the scale characteristics of a task environment play an important role in how the performance of a guidance system plays out. These effects are most significant for unmanned aerial vehicles because they are built in a much broader range of scales than manned vehicles. This paper investigates how scaling effects should be accounted for in the evaluation of guidance performance. It proposes a nondimensional quantity called the maneuvering environment scale ratio that captures the relationship between the maneuvering limits of a vehicle and the scale characteristics of a task environment. This paper also formalizes the idea of agent–environment dynamic fit for guidance tasks and uses the maneuvering environment scale ratio to measure the fit. A task includes the vehicle dynamics, task environment, and mission objective. Agent–environment dynamic fit for a task is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively using the maneuvering environ...