Predictive control of aerodynamically driven missiles

A discrete-time predictive controller is designed for an aerodynamically controlled missile. In order to keep the actuator outputs within the saturation limits, the cost function underlying the design incorporates penalties on, both, the amplitude and the increments of the control signal. Since the missile has time-varying parameters, to adapt the autopilot to the conditions at the current flight regime, a gain scheduling method is used. Linearized models of the missile for several flight conditions are employed to obtain the scheduled controllers.