Abstract
During the execution of imaging tasks, satellites are often required to observe natural disasters, local wars, and other emergencies, which regularly interferes with the execution of existing schemes. Thus, rapid satellite scheduling is urgently needed. As a new generation of three degree-of-freedom (roll, pitch, and yaw) satellites, agile earth observation satellites (AEOSs) have longer variable-pitch visible time windows for ground targets and are capable of observing at any time within the time windows. Thus, they are very suitable for emergency tasks. However, current task scheduling models and algorithms ignore the time, storage and energy consumed by pitch. Thus, these cannot make full use of the AEOS capabilities to optimize the scheduling for emergency tasks. In this study, we present a fine scheduling model and algorithm to realize the AEOS scheduling for emergency tasks. First, a novel time window division method is proposed to convert a variable-pitch visible time window to multiple fixed-pitch visible time windows. Second, a model that considers flexible pitch and roll capabilities is designed. Finally, a scheduling algorithm based on merging insertion, direct insertion, shifting insertion, deleting insertion, and reinsertion strategies is proposed to solve conflicting problems quickly. To verify the effectiveness of the algorithm, 48 groups of comparative experiments are carried out. The experimental results show that the model and algorithm can improve the emergency task completion efficiency of AEOSs and reduce the disturbance measure of the scheme. Furthermore, the proposed method can support hybrid satellite resource scheduling for emergency tasks.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and detailed feedback that substantially improved the paper. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 72071064 and 71521001.
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The left panel illustrates that the maneuver time between the tasks t2 and t3 is not satisfied, and thus, the task t3 cannot be executed. The right panel illustrates that the AEOS can lengthen the visible time window of the task so that the observation start time of the task t2 can be advanced to facilitate the execution of the task t3.
Haiquan Sun received his B.S. degree from Hefei University of Technology in 2016. He is currently working for his Ph.D. degree in management science and engineering at Hefei University of Technology. His research interests include satellite intelligent scheduling and emergency task scheduling.
Wei Xia received his Ph.D. degree from Hefei University of Technology in 2014. Currently he is working in University of Technology as a lecturer. His research interests include satellite intelligent scheduling and controlling.
Zhilong Wang received his B.S. degree from Hefei University of Technology in 2017. He is currently working for his Ph.D. degree in management science and engineering at Hefei University of Technology. His research interests include satellite resource scheduling and neural network scheduling algorithm.
Xiaoxuan Hu received his B.S. degree and Ph.D. degree from Hefei University of Technology in 1999 and 2007, respectively. He is a professor at Hefei University of Technology. His research interests include satellite scheduling and UAV planning.
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Sun, H., Xia, W., Wang, Z. et al. Agile Earth Observation Satellite Scheduling Algorithm for Emergency Tasks Based on Multiple Strategies. J. Syst. Sci. Syst. Eng. 30, 626–646 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-021-5506-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-021-5506-4