Mission scheduling optimization of multi-optical satellites for multi-aerial targets staring surveillance

The paper investigates the emergency scheduling problem of multiple aerial targets staring surveillance with multiple optical satellites (MSMT). To fulfill the requirement of state estimation and trajectory prediction, a novel scheduling model including specified duration of cooperative observation and revisits has been proposed. The total observation profit, introducing the independent observation for detection efficiency and cooperative observation for positioning precision, is regarded as the optimization objective. The corresponding time-varying observation gain functions of the two kinds of observations are illustrated respectively. Combined with the constraints of visibility, optic axis (OA) adjustment ability, cooperation duration and immunity, the constraint satisfaction mission scheduling model is established. In addition, a cooperation-oriented ant colony optimization algorithm (CO-ACO) is designed to determine the observation sequence for each satellite. Five elements for heuristics, balancing the quality and quantity of observations, are introduced to the design which can fully exploit the intelligence and improve the algorithm effectiveness. Simulations are performed to verify the effectiveness and demonstrate the superiority to existing algorithms under different conditions in terms of optimization performance.