Decentralized Estimation for Cooperative Phantom Track Generation

Summary

A decentralized estimation-decision strategy is derived for a team of electronic combat air vehicles (ECAVs) deceiving a network of radars. For the deception, a phantom target track is cooperatively generated by each ECAV applying range delay on the individual radar pulses. To continuously obtain a feasible phantom track, the team must tightly coordinate the phantom’s trajectory so as not to violate any of the system constraints. The coordination is performed by a decentralized decision process for which each ECAV periodically transmits its constraints on feasible tracks. To perform the decision process with minimal communication between the ECAVs, a decentralized estimation algorithm is proposed where each ECAV continuously estimates the states of its teammates and their respective radar position based on their individual transmitted constraints. Thus, all the information obtained in the individual messages is extracted and group coordination is obtained. Moreover, if there are gaps in communication the team coordination can be maintained. Simulation results confirm the viability of the proposed decentralized estimation-decision team strategy.