Component assignment and layout optimization for multi-module microsatellite considering variable module size

The general satellite component layout optimization problems have always focused on satellites with fixed module size, and each component is limited to a specific module or panel. In actual engineering practice, dimensions of microsatellite are no longer constrained strictly, but adjustable within an allowed range. The assignment of the components and the dimensions of the modules should be considered as variable to get better global performance. In this paper, a TS+DE+AFT hybrid algorithm is proposed to solve this component assignment and layout optimization problem for multi-module microsatellite (CALO-MM) considering variable module size, in which tabu search (TS) is mainly used to assign components to the appropriate module, and differential evolution (DE) is used to optimize the layout of the components in each module. An adaptive fine-tuning (AFT) strategy is applied to dynamically adjust the length and height of modules within a maximum envelope size. Demonstration and engineering cases are studied to verify the effectiveness of proposed hybrid algorithm.