Pitch Autopilot Design for Agile Missiles with Uncertain Aerodynamic Coefficients

The work presented here proposes two pitch autopilot designs for agile missiles which experience high pitch angles or angles of attack (AoA) during their manoeuvres. One great challenge pertaining to high AoA is that aerodynamic coefficients cannot be precisely predicted in a conventional wind tunnel environment. To directly address this challenge, the proposed autopilot designs (based on the integrator backstepping and H ∞ -norm minimization) do not require precise knowledge of such aerodynamic coefficients and so has a strong practical merit. Simulation results clearly testify this practical merit.