Patent ID: 7264198

Claim:
A method of guiding a vehicle to a target, the method comprising the steps of: providing the vehicle with a processor unit, a position unit, a velocity unit, an acceleration unit, and a control unit; and controlling an acceleration of the vehicle according to a first equation: A = r τ 2 + v τ + 1 2 ⁢ a wherein: A is an acceleration command calculated by the processing unit, the control unit controlling the vehicle based upon the thus calculated acceleration command A, r is a vehicle-to-target position vector determined by the position unit, v is a net vehicle-to-target velocity determined by the velocity unit based upon a velocity of the vehicle and a velocity of the target, a is a net vehicle-to-target acceleration determined by the acceleration unit based upon an acceleration of the vehicle and an acceleration of the target, and τ is a time-to-go estimate determined by the processor according to a second equation: 1 2 ⁢ a · a ⁢ ⁢ τ 3 + 3 2 ⁢ a · v ⁢ ⁢ τ 2 + ( a · r + v · v ) ⁢ τ + v · r = 0.