Study on mission planning algorithm for multi-target passive tracking based on satellite formation

Abstract

Mission planning for Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is challenging when only passive optical sensors are available to observe the targets. In this study, a mission-planning algorithm using a passive optical sensor for multi-target tracking in high altitude orbits based on microsatellite formation was developed, and a two-layer iterative consensus-based auction algorithm was designed to solve the optimization problem with requirements and constraints. First, orbit estimation was formulated using the perturbed dynamics and the line-of-sight angle measurement model. Second, distributed multi-target tracking tasks, including tasking metrics and observation constraints, were constructed for planning. Then, a two-layer iterative consensus-based auction algorithm was developed to solve the mission planning and conflict problem of multi-target tracking using multiple satellites. The only requirement for the algorithm was information exchange between neighboring observers, which encompasses the limitations of centralized planning and facilitates the execution of tasks more efficiently and flexibly. In addition, an event-triggered collaborative filtering approach suitable for this scenario was proposed to solve the distributed estimation problem of measurement asynchrony in epoch and frequency from different observers. Finally, numerical simulations were conducted under different conditions to verify the feasibility of the proposed method.