Evaluation of Missile Terminal Guidance Using Software in Loop (SIL)

Missile interception capability particularly depends on the guidance law implemented in the guidance processor of the missile. The majority of missiles employ proportional navigation (PN) as the primary guidance law since its first usage in the 20th century. PN tends to nullify the line-of-sight (LOS) angular rate by adjusting the missile turning rate proportionally to the LOS rate. With the great improvements in the aeronautic industry, PN is no more sufficient for highly maneuvering targets. Developing mathematical based advanced guidance laws has concerned a lot of researchers in that field and since then a lot of advanced guidance laws have been proposed and tested. Augmented PN (APN) is one of the proposed advanced guidance laws that can interact with highly maneuvering targets by augmenting the original PN with a target acceleration term which is estimated online. In this research, APN simulation and two-dimensioned missile-target intercept geometry are modeled using Matlab® Simulink™. Simulation results through different scenarios for modern guidance laws are evaluated and compared with other classical ones such as PN. The tuned APN law is implemented on a Xilinx FPGA processor using a system generator (Xilinx toolbox) which is conducted to the simulation model as a processor in the loop (SIL) simulation scheme. Simulation results show the superiority of APN against other classical guidance laws and the capability of the Xilinx FPGA processor is assessed and discussed.