Variable observation duration scheduling problem for agile Earth observation satellite based on quantum genetic algorithm

Compared to the conventional Earth observation satellites, the agile Earth observation satellites have stronger attitude adjustment capability along three axes which also make the scheduling problem more difficult. This paper proposes a new variable observation duration scheduling method based on the quantum genetic algorithm for agile Earth observation satellites at multiple observation tasks. First, we model the scheduling problem and take the observation profits as the performance function that combines the task priority and observation duration. Then, we propose a new coding method that includes the actual observation start time and the observation duration. Based on the good continuous space search ability of the quantum genetic algorithm, we design the corresponding quantum genetic algorithm which searches in both discrete domain and continuous domain. Finally, we give the simulation of multi-task multi-satellite scheduling problems and get the results of efficient observation planning which indicate the effectiveness of the algorithm.