Three-axes predictive control of autopilot for missile

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the autopilot design for the missile under various disturbances. Design/methodology/approach - In this study, model predictive control (MPC) method has been used for autopilot design for each axis. The aim of autopilot is that to keep the roll angle value around the zero degree and to track pitch/yaw acceleration commands. This three-axes control methodology also takes into consideration the interaction between pitch, yaw and roll motions. Findings - The purpose of using MPC method for three-axes of the autopilot is to decrease the control effort and to make the close-loop system insensitive against modeling uncertainties and stochastic effects. Originality/value - This study shows that the missile is able to reach to the desired target with good robustness, low control effort and little miss-distance under disturbances such as aerodynamic uncertainties, thrust misalignment and gust affect by using this alternative control method.