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Guidance and Control Systems

Guidance and Control Systems is a research topic within Aerospace Engineering. Science Explorer counts 19k research works in it since 1950. 32.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the development and analysis of missile guidance and control strategies, including pursuit-evasion games, impact time control, sliding mode guidance, cooperative attack scenarios, optimal control laws, and maneuvering target interception. The research covers a wide range of topics related to the guidance and control of missiles for various mission objectives.

  • Missile Guidance
  • Control
  • Pursuit-Evasion Games
  • Impact Time
  • Sliding Mode
  • Cooperative Attack
  • Integrated Guidance
  • Optimal Control
  • Maneuvering Targets
  • Autopilot
Research works
19k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
6.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
32.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+14%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Guidance and Control Systems research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.1k and 327 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 2.1k works
  2. 2 United States 327 works
  3. 3 India 181 works
  4. 4 Russia 133 works
  5. 5 South Korea 85 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 62 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 58 works
  8. 8 Italy 52 works
  9. 9 Germany 49 works
  10. 10 Canada 43 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 68.2%United States: 10.5%India: 5.8%Russia: 4.3%6 others listed: 11.2%68%largest
China2,121 · 68.2%United States327 · 10.5%India181 · 5.8%Russia133 · 4.3%6 others listed348 · 11.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Guidance and Control Systems research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Northwestern Polytechnical University publishes the most Guidance and Control Systems research, followed by Beihang University and Beijing Institute of Technology.

Who are the leading researchers in Guidance and Control Systems?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Guidance and Control Systems include Peng Shi, Frank L. Lewis and Brian D. O. Anderson.

  1. 1 Peng Shi Australia 5k citations
  2. 2 Frank L. Lewis United States 3.8k citations
  3. 3 Brian D. O. Anderson Australia 3.6k citations
  4. 4 Roland Siegwart Switzerland 3.3k citations
  5. 5 Lihua Xie Singapore 3.2k citations
  6. 6 Miroslav Krstić United States 3.1k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is Guidance and Control Systems research done?

The largest centres of Guidance and Control Systems research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Nanjing (China) and Harbin (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Xi'an and Harbin.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 564 works
  2. 2 Xi'an China 329 works
  3. 3 Nanjing China 223 works
  4. 4 Harbin China 128 works
  5. 5 Changsha China 108 works
  6. 6 Shanghai China 90 works
  7. 7 Moscow Russia 59 works
  8. 8 Wuhan China 50 works
  9. 9 Tianjin China 48 works
  10. 10 Chengdu China 48 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Xi'anCN · 329.4 works12×
  2. HarbinCN · 127.8 works8.9×
← less than its size predictsmore →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Guidance and Control Systems than the world average.

See Guidance and Control Systems on the map

Where is the best place to study Guidance and Control Systems?

Among universities, judged by research, Harbin Institute of Technology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Northwestern Polytechnical University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 41.02%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Harbin Institute of Technology: 91, 48.3%Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology: 25, 55.0%Northwestern Polytechnical University: 174, 42.3%Beihang University: 141, 39.4%Cranfield University: 13, 40.0%Beijing Institute of Technology: 123, 37.4%National University of Defense Technology: 89, 37.4%Air Force Engineering University: 62, 43.5%Dalian Maritime University: 29, 32.2%Indian Institute of Technology Bombay: 26, 34.7%Korea Advanced Insti…Harbin Institute of …Northwestern Polytec…Beihang University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 72.248.3%15.6×91 -5.9%
2 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and TechnologySouth Korea 72.055.0%15.1×25 +11.7%
3 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 71.442.3%42.8×174 -24.6%
4 Beihang UniversityChina 70.439.4%35.9×141 +25.0%
5 Cranfield UniversityUnited Kingdom 66.740.0%27.9×13 +98.8%
6 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 66.437.4%29.0×123 -4.3%
7 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 63.037.4%32.3×89 +16.3%
8 Air Force Engineering UniversityChina 62.143.5%118.5×62 -27.9%
9 Dalian Maritime UniversityChina 62.032.2%22.2×29 +155.0%
10 Indian Institute of Technology BombayIndia 62.034.7%16.8×26 +112.7%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Guidance and Control Systems research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 14% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Guidance and Control Systems.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.