Distributed Analytical Formation Control and Cooperative Guidance for Gliding Vehicles

Abstract

This paper addresses the analytical formation control and cooperative guidance problem for multiple hypersonic gliding vehicles under distributed communication. The gliding flight of the hypersonic gliding vehicle is divided into formation control phase and time coordination phase. In formation control phase, based on the idea of path tracking, the formation controller is designed using the second-order consensus protocol with normal positions as the coordination variables. In time coordination phase, based on the quasi-equilibrium gliding condition and the assumption of uniform deceleration motion, the analytical expression of time to go is derived. Then, the cooperative guidance method is developed using the first-order consensus protocol with time to go as the coordination variable. The proposed method takes full consideration of the characteristics of hypersonic gliding vehicle, such as complex nonlinear dynamics, no thrust, and quasi-equilibrium gliding condition, and no online numerical iteration is needed, which is well applicable for hypersonic gliding vehicles. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the formation control and cooperative guidance method.