Wideband Linear Quadratic Control of a Gyro Stabilized Electro-Optical Sight System

This paper describes some of the results obtained in a multiyear research effort to develop wideband, high accuracy tracking, weapon-pointing control systems in state-of-the-art, microprocessor-based, mobile weapon control systems. Linear quadratic (LQ) control laws, a subset of Modern Control Theory, were applied to an existing weapon system at the hardware level to optimize plant performance in the presence of certain non-linearities and mechanical resonance constraints. This hardware approach enabled us to apply a powerful form of optimal control theory to the development of fast response, large scale weapon systems, without the degrading limitations usually associated with the plant hardware. Two different optimal control techniques were developed and demonstrated. One LQ control technique was applied to the weapon-pointing rate loops, and the results are reported in NAECON 1982 (1). The other technique, described in this paper, was used to control the electro-optical target tracking sensor subsystem. This paper also describes a practical design procedure, based on an extensive library of computer programs, which was developed to analyze, simulate, program, and implement deterministic type modern control systems with higher order dynamics.