Analysis of sensor suites for a guided projectile

Two candidate sensor suites for a guided projectile are discussed. The projectile uses a millimeter-wave seeker for terminal guidance to a target. Various complements of gyroscopes, accelerometers, and seeker gimbal potentiometers are used to perform the target tracking, autopilot and guidance functions. The sensor suites are conventional, with three body-rate gyros, two gimbal-rate gyros, and two accelerometers (normal and lateral); and advanced, with three body-rate gyros, two gimbal-angle potentiometers, and two accelerometers (normal and lateral). The analysis addresses performance in terms of the target tracking error and impact miss distance. Covariance response to sensor biases and noises, as well as target motion and wind gusts, are presented. Robust performance, i.e., how much the nominal performance deteriorates in the presence of modeling uncertainty, is analyzed using the structured singular value. Model uncertainty due to inaccurately known aerodynamic characteristics and sensor transfer function errors is addressed