Integrated missile guidance and control based on sliding mode control with extended state observer gain optimization

This study aims to evaluate the impact of optimizing the disturbance estimation performance on the mission effectiveness of a missile equipped with an Integrated Guidance and Control (IGC) system across multiple engagement scenarios. The IGC system, based on Sliding Mode Controller (SMC), estimates the disturbances using a reduced-order Extended State Observer (ESO). The missile and target dynamics, IGC law, and ESO are modeled in MATLAB Simulink. An optimization framework using the Pattern Search algorithm was developed to tune the ESO gains and maximize the missile's probability of kill across all simulated scenarios. The optimized gains are compared to the reference observer gains from the literature to assess performance improvements. Results show that the IGC system with optimized observer gains clearly outperforms the reference configuration in most scenarios, increasing the average probability of kill from 40% to 70% across all scenarios. This indicates that enhancing disturbance estimation significantly boosts missile effectiveness, enabling accurate target tracking, reliable and faster satisfaction of engagement constraints.