A missile autopilot based on feedback linearization

This paper is dealing with a missile autopilot design. The objective is to seek the approaches which significantly enhance the ability of an aerospace control engineer to deal with a practical nonlinear flight control problem. For this purpose, two nonlinear methods are considered: "approximate feedback" and "approximate dynamic feedback" with two time-scale separation. Both methodologies have been applied in order to overcome the difficulties caused by the non-minimum phase phenomenon of the missile. For the sake of realism, the implementation of the controller includes a nonlinear observer. The second method, which incorporates the classical industrial know how, has been shown to be better among the two in terms of both performance and complexity of the control law.