Scaling effects in guidance systems and their benchmarking: The agility scale ratio

Scaling effects-i.e., the relationship between the aircrafts maneuvering capabilities and the environment scale characteristics-are expected to play an important role in how the performance of a guidance system plays out. These effects are most significant for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) since these vehicles can be built in a much broader range of scales than manned vehicles. This paper investigates how scaling effects should be accounted for in the evaluation of guidance performance. It proposes a non-dimensional quantity call the agility scale ratio (ASR). This quantity is similar to the Reynolds number or the Fraude number and captures the relationship between vehicle scale and maneuverability and the scale characteristics of the environment. Investigating guidance performance from a non-dimensional perspective can also provide important insights into how agile vehicles interact with complex envi-ronments. The paper presents results from examples motivated by recent work in guidance systems benchmarking.