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CONTROLCURRENT2026-05-13

Bounded-Input True Proportional Navigation for Impact-Time Control

Lohitvel Gopikannan, Shashi Ranjan Kumar, Abhinav Sinha

This paper solves the problem of intercepting a moving target with strict Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. limits by combining true proportional Navigation & LocomotionNavigationMoving through an environment toward a goal. (exact math, not approximations) with sliding mode Control & PlanningControlThe method used to make the robot move the way you want.. A software developer building autonomous systems can use this to implement interception or pursuit tasks where the actuators have known Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. bounds—useful for drones, missiles, or any Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. that needs to guarantee it hits a moving target within a specific time while respecting hardware limits.

THE PROBLEM

This paper focuses on Control & PlanningControlThe method used to make the robot move the way you want.. This paper solves the problem of intercepting a moving target with strict Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. limits by combining true proportional Navigation & LocomotionNavigationMoving through an environment toward a goal. (exact math, not approximations) with sliding mode Control & PlanningControlThe method used to make the robot move the way you want.. A software developer building autonomous systems can use this to implement interception or pursuit tasks where the actuators have known Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. bounds—useful for drones, missiles, or any Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. that needs to guarantee it hits a moving target within a specific time while respecting hardware limits. Read the paper by tracking the Core ConceptsTaskThe job the robot is supposed to complete, such as pick-and-place, navigation, or drawer opening. definition, the Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. or data assumptions, and the evidence that supports the claimed improvement.

HOW IT WORKS

1

Task framing

The paper frames the work as Control & PlanningControlThe method used to make the robot move the way you want.. Start here because it defines what success means and which assumptions the rest of the method inherits.

2

Core method

This paper solves the problem of intercepting a moving target with strict Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. limits by combining true proportional Navigation & LocomotionNavigationMoving through an environment toward a goal. (exact math, not approximations) with sliding mode Control & PlanningControlThe method used to make the robot move the way you want.. A software developer building autonomous systems can use this to implement interception or pursuit tasks where the actuators have known Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. bounds—useful for drones, missiles, or any Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. that needs to guarantee it hits a moving target within a specific time while respecting hardware limits. When reading the method section, identify the inputs, the learned or engineered representation, and the Core ConceptsActionA command the robot sends to its motors, controller, or low-level system. or prediction produced by the system.

3

Data and supervision

For robotics work, the data story is part of the method: check whether the system depends on Imitation & Reinforcement LearningTeleoperation (teleop)A human remotely controlling the robot, often to collect demonstrations., Simulation & Sim-to-RealSimulationA virtual environment where robots can be trained or tested., internet video, human labels, or Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. rollouts.

4

Evaluation evidence

The paper should be judged through its Simulation & Sim-to-RealEvaluationMeasuring how well a robot system performs. protocol: what data is used, what Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. or simulator is tested, and which Evaluation & ResearchBaselineA reference method used for comparison. comparisons support the claim. Look for the gap between the headline result and the Simulation & Sim-to-RealDeploymentPutting the trained system on a real robot. setting you would actually care about.

FIGURES

KEY RESULTS

Main contributionConceptual contribution

This paper solves the problem of intercepting a moving target with strict Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. limits by combining true proportional Navigation & LocomotionNavigationMoving through an environment toward a goal. (exact math, not approximations) with sliding mode Control & PlanningControlThe method used to make the robot move the way you want.. A software developer building autonomous systems can use this to implement interception or pursuit tasks where the actuators have known Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. bounds—useful for drones, missiles, or any Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. that needs to guarantee it hits a moving target within a specific time while respecting hardware limits.

WHY DEVELOPERS SHOULD CARE

This paper solves the problem of intercepting a moving target with strict Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. limits by combining true proportional Navigation & LocomotionNavigationMoving through an environment toward a goal. (exact math, not approximations) with sliding mode Control & PlanningControlThe method used to make the robot move the way you want.. A software developer building autonomous systems can use this to implement interception or pursuit tasks where the actuators have known Movement, Mechanics & Robot BodyAccelerationHow quickly velocity changes. bounds—useful for drones, missiles, or any Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. that needs to guarantee it hits a moving target within a specific time while respecting hardware limits.

LIMITATIONS

The main limitation to check is whether the claimed behavior holds outside the paper's reported setup. That means testing across different Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. embodiments, scenes, objects, and data distributions.

WHAT COMES NEXT

The practical next step is independent reproduction with clear baselines, ablations, and stress tests. For a developer, the useful follow-up is to map the paper's Control & PlanningControlThe method used to make the robot move the way you want. assumptions onto a concrete Core ConceptsRobotA physical system with sensors and actuators that can observe the world and take actions. stack, then test the smallest version of the method that could run end to end.

Read on arxiv →HTML source →

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