Guidance law for low-lift skip reentry subject to control saturation based on nonlinear predictive control

A novel guidance law is presented for low-lift skip reentry. The law is developed based on nonlinear predictive control theory. Firstly, an output vector is carefully chosen. In the framework of nonlinear predictive control, the predicted output tracking errors are viewed as the performance index. Then, a single-input–multiple-output guidance law is derived by minimizing that index even in the presence of the control saturation. The most prominent advantage of this approach is that the selected output vector is able to improve the accuracy of reentry landing. Moreover, the stability and robustness of the designed guidance law are analyzed. Simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the law with respect to parameter uncertainties when comparing with the feedback linearization theory based guidance law.