Design of missile autopilot using backstepping controller

Abstract

Autopilot's main objective is to track the desired response optimally, by considering the constraints of model. It should have faster response with overshoot within the specified limit, as well as it should have minimum steady state error for the better performance of guidance. As missile dynamics is highly nonlinear in nature, thus nonlinear controller is preferred. Nonlinear controller like dynamic inversion (DI) is used extensively due to its simplicity. However, this controller is slow, because of the use of integrator for the removal of steady state error. In this paper backstepping controller is used with different choice of lyapunov function to track the pitch dynamics of missile. Using backstepping controller with proper choice of lyapunov function makes the autopilot faster.