Relative Maneuver and Minimum Effort Guidance Under Gravity

This paper considers the guidance problem from a relative motion perspective. Acceleration, caused by gravity, of the interceptor is considered as the target's relative maneuver. The optimal guidance problem is designed to minimize the interceptor's real control effort, that is the normal acceleration in addition to gravity. Then the minimum effort guidance law is derived, where the relative maneuver caused by gravity is utilized rather than overcome during guidance. Finally, the performance of the proposed guidance law is proved through numerical simulations.