Decoupling Global and Local Faults in Satellite Swarms Using Smart-Freeze Adaptation and Isolation-Priority Logic

Satellite swarm operations require robust methodologies to distinguish between leader-induced reference frame biases (global errors) and individual follower anomalies (local deviations). This is the challenge of distributed fault diagnosis. In leader–follower topologies, distinguishing between a global reference error (leader satellite broadcasting incorrect navigation data) and a local node error (follower satellite drifting) is mathematically ambiguous when we use standard methods. Even recent unsupervised frameworks, such as Model-Guided Online Transfer Learning (MGOTL), that excel at single-satellite component diagnosis, suffer from adaptation and signal bleed when they are applied directly to distributed topologies. Therefore, we propose the Isolation-First Consensus Anomaly Detection (IF-CAD) framework for Decoupling Global and Local Faults in Satellite Swarms. We introduce a Smart Freeze mechanism to prevent the learning of persistent faults and a hierarchical logic that prioritizes local isolation over global agreement. The IF-CAD framework successfully decouples global leader faults from local follower faults. Fault detection remains stable even during long-duration anomalies.