Roll-pitch-yaw integrated μ-synthesis for high angle-of-attack missiles

In this research, we explore the feasibility of a roll-pitch-yaw integrated autopilot for a high angle-of-attack missile. Investigation of the aerodynamic characteristics of a surface-to-air missile is presented, which reveals the strong effects of aerodynamic cross-coupling between the longitudinal and lateral dynamics. Robust control techniques based on H ∞ and μ-synthesis are employed to design roll-pitch-yaw integrated autopilots. The performance of the proposed roll-pitch-yaw integrated controller is tested in nonlinear simulation accounting for cross-coupling effects between the lateral and longitudinal channels. In comparison of H ∞ and μ controllers, the performance of μ controller is slightly better in terms of rising time and settling time of the response. Using μ analysis, we identified the suitable structure and magnitude of the uncertainty block representing the nonlinear perturbations and cross coupling in the missile dynamics. The level of robustness obtained cannot be achieved by a controlled designed in a decoupled manner.