Coverage-based cooperative guidance law for intercepting hypersonic vehicles with overload constraint

This paper studies the problem of multiple interceptors with low velocity, weak maneuverability, and limited overload constraint to cooperatively intercept hypersonic vehicles under a nonlinear interception model. First, a coverage-based cooperative guidance (CBCG) law is proposed based on three concepts, i.e., interceptor reachable area, interceptor feasible area, and hypersonic vehicle escape area. Then, the relationship among the initial location of the interceptors, the parameters of the CBCG law, and the coverage area of the interceptor for intercepting the hypersonic vehicle is analyzed. Next, an allocation algorithm is designed to assign the coverage area and the initial locations of multiple interceptors. Finally, simulations are performed for intercepting the hypersonic vehicle with different maneuverabilities and maneuvering modes, and the proposed CBCG law is compared with the proportional navigation guidance (PNG) and sliding mode control guidance (SMCG) laws. The simulation results show that the proposed CBCG law can ensure that at least one interceptor can accurately intercept the hypersonic vehicle, giving full play of the scale advantage of low-cost interceptors. And the guidance robustness can be guaranteed in the presence of measurement errors.