Constraint-Lifted Sector-Constrained Guidance for Rear-Approach Interception
Abstract
This paper develops a sector-constrained guidance (SCG) law for interception of a maneuvering target while maintaining a prescribed approach geometry. The line of sight is required to remain within a specified angular sector behind the target throughout the engagement, resulting in a state-constrained guidance problem. To enforce this constraint, the directional angle between the target heading and the line of sight is mapped from the prescribed sector to an unconstrained coordinate using a sigmoid diffeomorphism. A guidance law is then designed in the lifted coordinate to generate a desired transverse velocity and corresponding pursuer lead angle. The desired lead angle is tracked through an inner-loop turn-rate controller, which is implemented through the normal-acceleration command of a nonlinear point-mass model. This construction embeds the sector constraint directly into the guidance law and does not require online constrained optimization. Numerical simulations against a maneuvering target show that SCG achieves interception while maintaining the prescribed rear-sector constraint, including when the pursuer normal-acceleration command is subject to actuator saturation. Comparisons with proportional guidance under the same engagement conditions demonstrate that proportional guidance may achieve interception but does not maintain the prescribed directional constraint.
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BibTeX
@misc{delgado2026constraintlifted,
title = {{Constraint-Lifted Sector-Constrained Guidance for Rear-Approach Interception}},
author = {Jhon Manuel Portella Delgado and Dennis S Bernstein and Ankit Goel},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.16115},
eprint = {2610.16115},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16115},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Constraint-Lifted Sector-Constrained Guidance for Rear-Approach Interception
AU - Jhon Manuel Portella Delgado
AU - Dennis S Bernstein
AU - Ankit Goel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.16115
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16115
AB - This paper develops a sector-constrained guidance (SCG) law for interception of a maneuvering target while maintaining a prescribed approach geometry. The line of sight is required to remain within a specified angular sector behind the target throughout the engagement, resulting in a state-constrained guidance problem. To enforce this constraint, the directional angle between the target heading and the line of sight is mapped from the prescribed sector to an unconstrained coordinate using a sigmoid diffeomorphism. A guidance law is then designed in the lifted coordinate to generate a desired transverse velocity and corresponding pursuer lead angle. The desired lead angle is tracked through an inner-loop turn-rate controller, which is implemented through the normal-acceleration command of a nonlinear point-mass model. This construction embeds the sector constraint directly into the guidance law and does not require online constrained optimization. Numerical simulations against a maneuvering target show that SCG achieves interception while maintaining the prescribed rear-sector constraint, including when the pursuer normal-acceleration command is subject to actuator saturation. Comparisons with proportional guidance under the same engagement conditions demonstrate that proportional guidance may achieve interception but does not maintain the prescribed directional constraint.
ER -