Guidance strategy of motion camouflage for spacecraft pursuit-evasion game

Abstract

This work is inspired by a stealth pursuit behavior called motion camouflage whereby a pursuer approaches an evader while the pursuer camouflages itself against a predetermined background. We formulate the spacecraft pursuit-evasion problem as a stealth pursuit strategy of motion camouflage, in which the pursuer tries to minimize a motion camouflage index defined in this paper. The Euler-Hill reference frame whose origin is set on the circular reference orbit is used to describe the dynamics. Based on the rule of motion camouflage, a guidance strategy in open-loop form to achieve motion camouflage index is derived in which the pursuer lies on the camouflage constraint line connecting the central spacecraft and evader. In order to dispose of the dependence on the evader acceleration in the open-loop guidance strategy, we further consider the motion camouflage pursuit problem within an infinite-horizon nonlinear quadratic differential game. The saddle point solution to the game is derived by using the state-dependent Riccati equation method, and the resulting closed-loop guidance strategy is effective in achieving motion camouflage. Simulations are performed to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed guidance strategies for the pursuit–evasion game scenario.