Mission planning method based on cooperative search and tracking for heterogeneous satellite swarms with turntable payloads

This study developed an online collaborative strategy for planning the missions of heterogeneous satellite swarms to enable them to search for and track noncooperative time-sensitive targets (TSTs). The developed strategy involves regional search, target tracking, and identification and confirmation. A geostationary-Earth-orbit (GEO) satellite equipped with turntable payloads and a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite swarm are employed. The rotating caliper algorithm and parallel strip decomposition are employed to enable the GEO satellite to achieve reciprocating scanning coverage of a large region. A safety range is defined for a TST, and a regular hexagonal neighborhood transfer strategy is adopted to continuously track the TST through the GEO satellite. A strategy based on potential accessibility screening and approximate vertical overhead observation is used to achieve identification and confirmation of the TST by the LEO satellite swarm. Subsequently, an algorithm grounded in the Contract Net Protocol is executed to enable the LEO swarm to conduct autonomous search in response to sudden target loss scenarios. Scenario simulations demonstrated that the proposed method facilitates effective identification and long-term monitoring of a TST within a region of interest.