Guidance strategies for interceptor against active defense spacecraft in two-on-two engagement

Abstract

This paper investigates the guidance problem for interceptors against spacecraft with active defense in a two-on-two engagement. There are four adversaries in the engagement which are interceptor, protector, spacecraft and active defender. The interceptor is required to capture the spacecraft and evade the defender with the assist of the protector. Two classes of guidance laws are proposed based on norm differential game strategy and linear quadratic differential game strategy, respectively. Interceptor using norm differential game guidance laws is able to pursue the spacecraft without being intercepted by defender, even though the maneuverability of both interceptor and protector is lower than defender. Additionally, linear quadratic differential game guidance laws derived by numerical solution of Riccati differential equation take into account the control saturation, fuel cost and chattering phenomenon simultaneously. Finally, the effectiveness and performance of the developed guidance approaches are demonstrated by nonlinear numerical simulations.