Coverage-based cooperative target acquisition for hypersonic interceptions

This paper presents a novel coverage-based cooperative target acquisition algorithm for hypersonic interceptions. Firstly, the difficulties in the hypersonic trajectory prediction are introduced which invalidate the conventionally used predicted impact point based mid-course guidance and seeker acquisition. Secondly, in order to optimally estimate and predict the target trajectory information, the interacting multiple model (IMM) algorithm is used with the constant velocity (CV) model, the constant acceleration (CA) model and the Singer model serving as the model set. The target states are described with the probability density function (PDF) based on the IMM prediction. Thirdly, the interceptor seeker target acquisition model is established which considers the blur edge region of the field of view. The cooperative target acquisition algorithm is designed by maximizing the interceptor seekers cooperative coverage of the target high probability region (HPR). Finally, digital simulations prove the effectiveness of the proposed method and reveal that the real challenge in the hypersonic target acquisition is the poor trajectory prediction accuracy which may further result to the unsteadiness of the interceptor trajectories.