Estimation of LOS rates and angles using EKF from noisy seeker measurements

This paper deals with estimation of line of sight rates and angles of evader with respect to pursuer from available noisy active seeker measurements. During terminal guidance, on board seeker of pursuer acquires the required measurements, which are very noisy, non-Gaussian and correlated due to glint, eclipsing and thermal noise. Also there is an aperiodic data loss in the inner gimbal pitch and yaw rate measurement channels due to eclipsing. An extended Kalman filter has been used to estimate the line of sight rates and angles along with observer states from seeker measurements under such practical situations. The estimation algorithm has been validated under simulated environment and the results are encouraging. Future research to be carried out is also discussed at the end.