A Stackelberg Equilibrium-Based Control Algorithm for Satellite Sequential Pursuit-Evasion Gamesor

In long-range sequential orbital pursuit-evasion game scenarios, traditional Nash equilibrium algorithms rely on symmetric simultaneous decision-making assumptions. Such algorithms fail to fully exploit the sequential advantages of the leader-follower paradigm in practical space missions, and often yield conservative strategies with excessive fuel consumption. This paper proposes a Stackelberg equilibrium-based control algorithm for sequential pursuit-evasion games involving satellites with impulsive orbital maneuvers. A multi-stage impulsive maneuver game model incorporating orbit determination delays is established, and a bi-level nested optimization architecture is designed. The outer layer employs the Pattern Search algorithm to derive the optimal maneuver strategy of the pursuer, while the inner layer uses the Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) algorithm to obtain the optimal response strategy of the evader. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with the traditional Nash-equilibrium Action-Reaction Search (ARS) algorithm and the greedy algorithm neglecting evader maneuvers, the proposed algorithm achieves a shorter terminal relative distance with lower fuel consumption.