Thrust and pneumatic composite control system of spinning missile using pulse engines

Abstract The canard layout of the spinning missile exhibits limited capability in achieving a large angle of attack. Particularly under high-altitude or low-speed conditions, the rudder surface takes considerable time to establish an angle of attack, thereby hindering rapid response. This paper establishes a mathematical model of canard-rotating missiles equipped with pulse engines. Research on control command distribution and pulse engine ignition strategies is carried out based on the pseudo-angle-of-attack feedback overload autopilot. The optimal distribution of the pneumatic rudder and the pulse engine is conducted according to the difference between the overload command and the actual overload. To reduce the coupling influence of the pulse engine thrust on the yaw channel, a fuzzy ignition strategy for the pulse engine is designed by its working efficiency in the pitch channel. Through ballistic numerical simulation, the miss distances and overload curves of the composite control system and the pure aerodynamic control are compared. The results show that the thrust/pneumatic composite control method for the rotating missile designed in this paper effectively improves the response-ability of the rotating projectile to large overload commands, achieves higher guidance accuracy, and thus possesses certain engineering application value.