GPU-Enabled Projectile Guidance for Impact Area Constraints

摘要

Guided projectile engagement scenarios often involve impact area constraints, in which it may be less desirable to incur miss distance on one side of a target or within a specified boundary near the target area. Current projectile guidance schemes such as impact point predictors cannot handle these constraints within the guidance loop, and may produce dispersion patterns that are insensitive to these constraints. In this paper, a new projectile guidance law is proposed that leverages real-time Monte Carlo impact point prediction to continually evaluate the probability of violating impact area constraints. The desired aim point is then adjusted accordingly. Real-time Monte Carlo simulation is enabled within the feedback loop through use of graphics processing units (GPU's), which provide parallel pipelines through which a dispersion pattern can routinely be predicted. The result is a guidance law that can achieve minimum miss distance while avoiding impact area constraints. The new guidance law is described and formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem which is solved in real-time through massively-parallel Monte Carlo simulation. An example simulation is shown in which impact area constraints are enforced and the methodology of stochastic guidance is demonstrated. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations are shown which demonstrate the ability of the stochastic guidance scheme to avoid an arbitrary set of impact area constraints, generating an impact probability density function that optimally trades miss distance within the restricted impact area. The proposed guidance scheme has applications beyond smart weapons to include missiles, UAV's, and other autonomous systems.