Objectives To achieve precise landing control under complex sea conditions and ship wake interference, an RHC-TVLQG-AR (receding horizon control-time varying linear quadratic Gaussian-autoregressive model) algorithm is proposed.

Methods Based on the idea of receding horizon control (RHC), the landing control problem is transformed into a tracking control problem within the receding horizon. In each time window, the autoregressive (AR) model is used to accurately predict the movement of the ideal landing point online, and the predicted movement signal of the ideal landing point is incorporated into the guidance law of the carrier-based aircraft in the current time window. Then, the control signal at the first time step of the solved control sequence is used as the control input of the carrier-based aircraft to obtain the state of the carrier-based aircraft at the next time step. The time window is shifted backward by one time step, and after updating the initial state, the tracking control problem in the current time window is solved again using the method in the previous time window. Through the step-by-step backward shift of the time window, precise landing control of the carrier-based aircraft is finally achieved.

Results According to the landing simulation results of the carrier-based aircraft under different initial conditions and sea conditions, the deviation between the touchdown point and the ideal landing point under this algorithm is within 3.57 m, which has higher tracking accuracy, faster tracking speed and better flexibility than the LQG method.

Conclusions The algorithm can realize precise landing control satisfying input constraints under complex sea conditions.