A Novel Three-Dimensional Sliding Pursuit Guidance and Control of Surface-to-Air Missiles

Abstract

In recent decades, missile guidance and control have advanced significantly, with methods like pure pursuit (PP), command to line-of-sight (CLOS), and proportional navigation (PN) enabling accurate target interception in uncertain environments through line-of-sight (LOS) tracking. In this work, we propose a novel 3D sliding pure pursuit guidance (3DSPP) law for controlling a surface-to-air missile against a maneuvering target. The algorithm is compared with established guidance laws such as zero-effort miss distance “ZEM-PN” and “3D-PP”, with performance metrics including the miss distance (Formula presented.)  and time of closest approach (Formula presented.). The results demonstrate that the 3DSPP outperforms the conventional methods by achieving the lowest (Formula presented.) 0.1497 m and the fastest (Formula presented.) 7.3853 s, ensuring more precise and rapid interception. The algorithm also exhibits superior robustness to noise and efficient energy management, making it a promising solution for real-world missile guidance systems.