A Simple Distributed Simultaneous Arrival Control Strategy For Multiple-to-One Spacecraft Pursuit Evasion Game

This paper focuses on simultaneous arrival multiple-to-one proximate pursuit-evasion games of spacecrafts with orbital maneuvering ability, where multiple pursuing spacecraft aim to catch one evading spacecraft with the same capture time, while the latter tries its best to avoid the capture. To achieve the objective, We first develop a decentralized control strategy with unknown control magnitude for each pursuing spacecraft based on the minimization of its zero-effort-miss (ZEM) to the evader, by assuming a global same but unknown time-to-go for all pursuers. To complete computing the pursing control, we then let the pursers cooperatively calculate the global time-to-go with local communication, as the maximization of the time-to-go of each pursuer when reaching the evader using its maximal control magnitude. The actual control magnitude of each pursuer spacecraft is computed based on a simple algebraic equation constructing locally based on the spacecraft ZEM and the global time-to-go. Simulation shows that the proposed pursing control strategy can make the pursing spacecrafts reach the evading spacecraft at almost the same time.