Decentralized Proof-of-Benefit mission negotiation method for satellite clusters

The functional implementation mode of Earth observation satellites is gradually shifting from single-satellite independent execution to satellite cluster collaborative completion. This transformation imposes requirements for finer-grained decentralized on-board autonomous planning within satellite clusters. To address this need, this paper proposes a decentralized negotiation method termed the Proof of Benefit (PoB) method. The PoB method incorporates the ideas of blockchain’s competitive consensus and smart contract’s automatic execution of predefined rules. Based on the traditional hash computation consensus architecture, it takes component-level mission planning solving as the consensus problem to realize component-level mission negotiation. Secondly, using digital twin technology, a component-level multi-granularity model for cluster satellites is established, focusing on payload, attitude and orbit control, and power subsystem models. Scenarios of multi-satellite multi-target continuous observation and satellite clusters subject to communication interference are designed to verify the negotiation effect, negotiation speed and fault tolerance of the PoB method. Simulation results show that satellite clusters using the PoB method have a higher mission completion rate and a lower negotiation time, can maintain cluster function stability under the influence of large interference intensity and scale.