COMPARISON OF FLIGHT PATH OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM SOLUTIONS BY DIRECT AND INDIRECT METHODS FOR A GUIDED AIRCRAFT MISSILE WITH A ROCKET ENGINE

摘要

Two solutions to the problem of optimizing the flight path of an aircraft are compared: the first solution was obtained by the direct method, and the second solution satisfies the necessary optimality conditions. A brief description of the polynomial method (direct method) and a combination of the direct collocation and multiple shooting methods (including elements of the direct and indirect methods) is given, which is used to solve the aircraft flight path optimization problem from a given initial point to a given final point using the minimum flight time criterion. The aircraft is an air-to-surface missile with a solid-propellant rocket engine. The investigations showed that both methods yield close results in terms of phase variables, control variables, and criterion values. This allows drawing the conclusion that the polynomial method solves the problem under consideration with sufficient accuracy.