Distributed Time and Space Cooperative Super Twisting Sliding Mode Guidance Laws for a Multi-Missile System

Abstract

This paper presents a distributed time and space cooperative guidance law based on a higher-order sliding mode protocol for the consensus among multiple missiles in the Line of Sight (LOS) and perpendicular to the LOS direction using a Multi-Agent System (MAS) approach. A graph theory is used to represent the communication between the missiles and a leader-follower approach of MAS is used to design the super-twisting sliding mode protocol for the consensus. The cooperative guidance law not only ensures robustness but also reduces the convergence time and the chattering during the consensus among multiple missiles. The stability condition of the consensus is also derived using the Lyapunov function.The protocol is validated among 4 missiles in the given pattern with two scenarios (1) Missile launching with different velocities and (2) Missile launching with the same velocities. The simulation results show that the consensus is achieved in a finite time. Further to show the efficacy of the robust cooperative guidance law, the results are compared with the guidance law designed using classical sliding mode control protocol with constant-rate and constant propositional rate reaching law. From the comparative analysis, it is inferred that the distributed time and space cooperative guidance law based on a higher-order sliding mode protocol performs better in terms of time required for consensus, time to hit the target, and precision.