A TERRAIN-FOLLOWING CONTROL SYSTEM

The terrain following situation is represented in the sketch shown as Figure 11.49. A change of
range, the horizontal distance, is denoted by Ax; Ah denotes a change of the height of the
aircraft. The reference height (of the obstacle to be cleared) is denoted by ho and the flight path
angle is denoted by y, as usual. For the aircraft to be considered, which is a representative (or
generic) strike aircraft, there are two controls, namely a commanded change in normal
acceleration measured at the aircraft's centre of gravity, a, which is denoted ul, and a cg' change
in the rate of opening or closing of the throttle which is denoted by u2. It is customary in terrain-
referenced navigation to use, as a technique for determining the aircraft's position, a
comparison of the return signals of the radar altimeter, (an accurate, short range, vertical radar
system), with those obtained from a three-dimensional terrain model which has been digitized
and stored on an on-board computer; this complex method is used to avoid, as much as possible,
active sensing of the terrain, thereby reducing the chances of being detected. However, there
may be unmapped obstacles, so that terrain-following by looking ahead in a map database is
not wholly safe and recourse to briefly scanning the terrain ahead using a laser rangefinder, or
a forward-looking infra-red (FLIR) system, is often taken. For the purposes of explaining the
terrain-following control system it will be assumed that range can be measured by FLIR or laser
rangefinder and that changes in height are measured using a radio altimeter.