Semi‐Analytical Guidance for Velocity Maximization of Gliding Vehicles Using Proportional Navigation and Sparse Waypoints

This study proposes a semi‐analytical guidance strategy for gliding vehicles by integrating proportional navigation (PN) with sparse waypoint optimization to maximize terminal velocity. Utilizing the analytical solution of PN with a navigation constant of three, the original optimal control problem is transformed into a low‐dimensional waypoint optimization problem that inherently satisfies dynamic constraints. This transformation significantly reduces computational complexity. Moreover, the contour plot of the cost function exhibits a smooth, unimodal landscape that closely approximates convexity, which facilitates reliable and efficient convergence. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed method achieves near‐optimal terminal velocity using only two or three sparsely placed waypoints. With computation times on the order of tens of milliseconds, this approach is highly suitable for real‐time implementation in onboard guidance systems.