Chapter 57

Visual Simulation of Three-Point Method

Guidance Trajectory for Antitank Missile

Mengchun Zhong, Cheng Li, and Hua Li

Abstract To solve problems of trajectory simulation in the training system for

antitank missile of infantry fighting vehicle, three-point method guidance trajectory
equations have been developed, and numerical simulation is performed in
MATLAB software. It is difficult to keep balance between the fidelity and real-
time simulation in large scale of terrain, but we managed to solve this problem by
applying MultiGen Creator to construct the infantry fighting vehicles, antitank
missiles and 3D entity model, and multi-resolution LOD terrain segmentation
algorithm to optimize the battlefield environment. The virtual reality software
Vega was used as the core graphics engine to realize the visual simulation of
antitank missile, while the corresponding specific settings joined in the system,
such as missile tail flame and explosion, so that training personnel can directly
observe the missile flight state and damage effect. This study might provide a
feasible method to improve the fidelity of the training system and the quality of
training effect as well.

Keywords Antitank missile • Three-point method • Visual simulation

57.1 Introduction

With the development of science and technology in weapon system, the process of
operating equipment has become increasingly complicated, which puts up higher
requirements for the person who operates the new equipment. Countries around the
world have taken measures in order to improve the training approaches and the
environment for training activities so as to strengthen the operators’ skills and their
operations. At present, the army of China mainly uses AFT07 all-digital simulation
of infantry antitank missile training simulator to carry out simulation training, but
the system focuses on the operation method and operation steps. In trajectory
simulation, it uses the projectile points (red light) to replace the missile, so the

M. Zhong (*) • C. Li • H. Li
Department of Weapon Engineering, Academy of Armored Force Engineering,
100072 Beijing, China
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 487

W.E. Wong (ed.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer
Engineering and Networks, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-11104-9_57
488 M. Zhong et al.

simulation result is not realistic, and the trajectory simulation fidelity is directly
related to the Sagittarius whether he can learn the characteristic of flight control live
from training or not. Therefore, study on the antitank missile attacking process
visual simulation technology is essential to improve the training effect of the
system.
This chapter developed the three-point method of antitank missile guidance
trajectory equation and the infantry antitank missile trajectory visual simulation
calculated by software MATLAB and the virtual reality software Vega, so the
weapon system can adopt professional analysis methods and perception means to
get the simulation data of 3D scene graphs, and other forms of output, which is quite
efficient.

57.2 Development of Three-Point Method Guidance

Trajectory Equations

57.2.1 Reference Coordinate System

Coordinate system is selected as reference and describes the missile position and
movement. Coordinate system can be determined based on the habit and the
convenience of studying the problem [1]. Research on the guidance law of the
three-point method is generally used in radar coordinate system OXRYRZR, as is
shown in Fig. 57.1: the origin O is the guidance station location, usually installed in
infantry chariots; OXR connects shaft in the infantry and target. The OYR axis in the
vertical plane is perpendicular to the OXR axis. OZR shaft, OXR shaft, and OYR shaft
united a right-handed Cartesian coordinate.
Angle ε is the elevation angle between the OXR axis and the horizontal plane.
Angle β is the azimuth angle—the angle of OXR axis in the horizontal plane
projection and the ground coordinate axis.

Fig. 57.1 Schematic

diagram of the radar
coordinate system and
ground coordinate system
57 Visual Simulation of Three-Point Method Guidance Trajectory for Antitank Missile 489

Fig. 57.2 Diagram of the

relative movement

In order to determine the relative movement between the missile and target, it
still needs to refer to the relative coordinates [2], as is shown in Fig. 57.2:
The missile position is M, the target position is T, and MT, called the line of sight
angle, is the line between the missile and target. ηT is the lead angle of the target
between the velocity vector and MT. In the same way, ηm is the lead angle of target,
and θm is the angle between the missile velocity vector and the ground coordinates
OX called the trajectory inclination of the missile. In the same way, θT is the
trajectory inclination of the target. By combining with the radar coordinate system,
missile elevation angle εm is the sum of the lead angle ηm and the trajectory
inclination angle θm. That is,

εm ¼ ηm þ θm ð57:1Þ

In the same way, target elevation angle εT is the sum of the lead angle ηT and the
trajectory inclination angle θT:

εT ¼ ηT þ θT ð57:2Þ

57.2.2 Establishment of Motion Equations

The three-point guidance law refers to the process in the target missile, missile
guidance station, and always in a straight line [3]; the missile and guidance station
line azimuth angle εm and the objectives and guiding station line azimuth angle εT
must be equal.
That is,

εm ¼ εT ð57:3Þ
490 M. Zhong et al.

Fig. 57.3 Diagram of the

three-point guidance

Therefore, guiding relations between the three-point method are shown in Fig. 57.3:
The distance of the missile M to the origin O is called Rm, and RT is the distance
from the target T to the origin O. Using the reference coordinate system and the
three-point method guidance law geometry, we can obtain relative motion equa-
tions of the three-point method for guidance:
9
dRm >
¼ V m cos ηm >
>
dt >
>
>
>
>
¼ V m sin ηm >
dεm
Rm >
>
dt >
>
>
>
dRT >
>
¼ V T cos ηT =
dt ð57:4Þ
dεT >
>
RT ¼ V T sin ηT >
>
>
dt >
>
>
>
εm ¼ θm þ ηm >
>
>
>
εT ¼ θT þ ηT >
>
>
>
;
εm ¼ εT

From Type (4), we can see that it is difficult to solve the trajectory equation
directly. But when we get the initial condition RT0, Rm0, ηT0, εT0, εm0, we can solve
the equation by numerical solution.

57.3 Calculation of Ballistic Numerical Simulation

For discussion, we assume that the target does the rectilinear motion at a uniform
velocity on the horizontal plane VT ¼ 10 m/s, infantry fighting vehicle is in static
state, and the antitank missile intercepts the target by the three-point method and at
a constant velocity, Vm ¼ 120 m/s.
The initial condition of the guide to the missile is RT0 ¼ 500 m, Rm0 ¼ 10 m,
ηT0 ¼ εT0 ¼ εm0 ¼ 60 , ηm0 ¼ 30 . Applying the four-order Runge-Kutta method in
57 Visual Simulation of Three-Point Method Guidance Trajectory for Antitank Missile 491

Fig. 57.4 Three-point 500

method trajectory curves missile cruve
target cruve
400

300

z/m
200

100

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x/m

Fig. 57.5 Lead angle 30

ηm  T curve
25

20
Lead angle / °

15

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Time / s

MATLAB software to numerical solution Type (4), the missile trajectory is shown
in Figs. 57.4 and 57.5.
In Fig. 57.4, the black curve stands for the trajectory of the target, and the red
curve stands for the trajectory of the missile. The result shows that the meeting
point of the missile and target is (290,433). Figure 57.5 is the curve that the lead
angle of missile changes over time in the course of flying. According to the meeting
point, Rm ¼ RT, so it can be obtained after 4.28 s the missile hit the target.

57.4 Antitank Missile Trajectory Visual Simulation

Visual simulation is an important form of virtual reality technology, which is based

on information technology, multimedia technology, virtual reality technology, and
its application in the field of related technology, a comprehensive technology study
of the system by using the system model of the actual or assumed [4]. Traditional
492 M. Zhong et al.

simulations are usually based on Vega, while this study introduces the virtual
reality software trajectory data to realize the visual simulation of the antitank
missile attack process, by which a more intuitive result can be generated.

57.4.1 Construction of 3D Virtual Battlefield

The construction of 3D virtual battlefield includes 3D solid modeling and 3D terrain

modeling. This article uses the current mainstream modeling tool MultiGen Creator
to build infantry fighting vehicles, antitank missile, target tank 3D solid model, and
the 3D terrain battlefield based on digital elevation model DEM terrain reconstruc-
tion methods [5, 6].
Level of detail (LOD) node technology is a fast rendering technology in the
premise without affecting the visual effect to simplify the complex scene. In the past,
LOD was simplified on grid entities in frame structure and did not pay attention to
the terrain texture simplification of the corresponding. With the development of
scene simulation, the fidelity of the scene puts up higher requirements, usually using
high-resolution satellite images to construct terrain texture. Due to the large amount
of image data, in order to improve the fidelity and the speed of simulation program,
this chapter adopts four binary tree LOD terrain texture segmentation algorithms
based on terrain rendering. According to the distance between view point and the
ground, LOD, the terrain is divided into three levels (3LOD)—low, medium, and
high resolution—as is shown in Table 57.1:
In medium resolution, each “tile” corresponds to a 1,024  1,024 RGB format
texture map, while in high resolution, it needs four 256  256 RGB format texture
maps combined into the 1,024  1,024 texture map. So we can make the terrain
changes effect at different distances in a certain view range and reduce the render-
ing load so as to improve the real-time performance of the system. In the method,
the virtual battlefield construction of Creator is shown in Fig. 57.6:

57.4.2 Visual Simulation of Missile Attack Process

The Creator software is adopted to build the three-dimensional model. In order to

realize the model object driven in a 3D scene, it still needs to import the model of
virtual reality software Vega for the corresponding initialization. Any visualization
system will require much parameter setting in order to run; in Vega, such

Table 57.1 Details of LOD level Block Tiles Block status

hierarchy level
High 1, 024 m 16 44
Medium 2,048 m 4 22
Low 4,096 m 1 11
57 Visual Simulation of Three-Point Method Guidance Trajectory for Antitank Missile 493

Fig. 57.6 Battlefield

simulation effect diagram

Fig. 57.7 Antitank missile

and its plume effects

Fig. 57.8 Effects of the

explosion

parameters are saved in the ADF file. In order to make the simulation looks more
real, the corresponding specific settings are in the scene. The particle system
generation is applied to make missile tail flame, target debris, and smoke effects.
The flight process of the missile and the effects of the explosion are shown in
Figs. 57.7 and 57.8.
494 M. Zhong et al.

Conclusion
This chapter studied the antitank missile motion by adopting the three-point
method, where it is applied to MATLAB to solve the trajectory equations of
the missile. The battlefield environment was optimized based on LOD terrain
segmentation algorithm. It certainly solved the problem of balance between
the fidelity and real-time simulation in large scale of terrain. By achieving the
visual simulation of the missile attack process, this study provided a feasible
method to improve the fidelity of the training system, and it might be of great
significance to improve the effect of training simulator.

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