Application of velocity-based gain-scheduling to lateral auto-pilot designfor an agile missile

In this paper a modern gain-scheduling methodology is proposed which exploi ts recently developed velocity-based techniques to resolve many of the defi ciencies of classical gain-scheduling approaches (restriction to near equil ibrium operation, to slow rate of variation), This is achieved while mainta ining continuity with linear methods and providing an open design framework (any linear synthesis approach may be used) which supports divide and conq uer design strategies. The application of velocity-based gain-scheduling te chniques is demonstrated in application to a demanding, highly nonlinear, m issile control design task. Scheduling on instantaneous incidence (a rapidl y varying quantity) is well-known to lead to considerable difficulties with classical gain-scheduling methods. It is shown that the methods proposed h ere can, however, be used to successfully design an effective and robust ga in-scheduled controller. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .