Path planning based on ant colony and genetic fusion algorithm for communication supporting spacecraft

To implement the orbit maneuvering of a communication supporting spacecraft in a large area, the path planning of the communication supporting spacecraft was proposed based on the fusion of ant colony and genetic algorithms. Firstly, the orbit dynamic model of spacecraft was established, and the fusion scheme of the genetic and ant colony algorithms was studied. On the basis of the fast convergence of genetic algorithm and the higher efficiency of colony algorithm, the genetic and ant colony algorithms were redesigned respectively under a fusion framework, and the operation process was presented. Finally, the path planning was simulated. The simulation results show that the fusion algorithm can reach the stabilization after 100 iterations, and the average safety path length is 4.0553×10⁴ m. These results prove that the convergence speed of maneuvering orbit planning based on genetic and ant colony fusion is fast, and the flight path to a fault of spacecraft can be obtained in a shorter time, which raises the efficiency of orbit planning remarkably.