Sliding mode autopilot and observer design for a supersonic flight vehicle

Design and synthesis of a nonlinear supersonic missile longitudinal dynamics control for angle-of-attack output tracking are presented. In addition a sliding mode observer is designed to estimate the angle-of-attack which is difficult to measure in practice. The employed method is simple to implement in practical applications and enables the sliding mode control design to exhibit the desired dynamic properties during the entire output-tracking process independent of perturbations. Results of simulations are presented to demonstrate the performance, robustness, and stability of the considered autopilot.