Fast Instinct, Slow Reason: A Dual-Speed Agentic Framework for Self-Configuring Multi-Object Tracking in Satellite Video

arXiv:2610.33396v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Multi-object tracking in satellite video underpins persistent monitoring, yet offline-tuned trackers lack the onboard intelligence and efficiency to adapt within an observation of tens of seconds. The root is that adaptation still means relabelling and retraining the detector, which cannot run on board in time. Tuning the tracker configuration strongly controls accuracy without touching the network, yet search needs labelled or proxy evaluations, and a language agent costs seconds and tokens per decision. We propose a dual-speed agentic framework pairing a fast instinct compiled offline with a slow reason serving the mission. Its algorithm, Arbitration of Unlabelled Shortlists from Prior Experience, or AUSPEX, learns a covering shortlist and a label-free ranker from labelled source tasks and commits one configuration per sequence. Its system, a Cascaded Onboard Runtime with Verified Uplinked Skills, or CORVUS, cascades reflex, skill, and agent layers, so that a verified skill commits 2.5 s into each observation while a language agent serves natural- language missions. On SatMTB and SatVideoDT with three recent detectors, AUSPEX raises IDF1 by 2.84 to 2.94 points and MOTA by 3.21 to 3.29 points on average without target labels, balances accuracy and labels best among sixteen methods, and loses at most 0.28 IDF1 points at 1.25 tracking passes. CORVUS executes four missions with execution accuracy up to 0.99 and target recall at the perception ceiling, spends no token on the routine decision, runs on Jetson Xavier NX, and hosts fifteen language models from six families without altering any commitment, demonstrating its extensibility and generalization.