Impact Angle and Field-of-View Constrained Guidance Law Against Non-Maneuvering Moving Tank Using Nonlinear Virtual Relative Model and Optimal Error Dynamics

This paper presents an advanced guidance law design for Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) attacking non-maneuvering moving tanks. The proposed method integrates constraints on impact angle and addresses the Field of View (FOV) limitation of the missile seeker during the final guidance phase. Using a nonlinear virtual relative model, this method treats moving targets as stationary. The paper also introduces an optimal form of error dynamics that allows the impact angle error to converge to zero within a finite time. A specially designed weighting function optimizes the distribution of command acceleration, effectively minimizing initial guidance commands and ensuring that command magnitudes gradually reduce to zero as the missile approaches the target. A saturation function is included to effectively manage the maximum FOV angle constraint, ensuring continuous target lock capabilities of the seeker throughout the missile’s flight. Numerical simulations have demonstrated the robustness and increased accuracy of the proposed guidance law in achieving precise impact angles while maintaining operational constraints. The results highlight the potential of the proposed model in significantly enhancing the tactical effectiveness of ATGM systems in actual combat scenarios. © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).