On-Board Decentralized Observation Planning for LEO Satellite Constellations

Abstract

The multi-satellite on-board observation planning (MSOOP) is a variant of the multi-agent task allocation problem (MATAP). MSOOP is used to complete the observation task allocation in a fully cooperative mode to maximize the profits of the whole system. In this paper, MSOOP for LEO satellite constellations is investigated, and the decentralized algorithm is exploited for solving it. The problem description of MSOOP for LEO satellite constellations is detailed. The coupled constraints make MSOOP more complex than other task allocation problems. The improved Consensus-Based Bundle Algorithm (ICBBA), which includes a bundle construction phase and consensus check phase, is proposed. A constraint check and a mask recovery are introduced into bundle construction and consensus check to handle the coupled constraints. The fitness function is adjusted to adapt to the characteristics of different scenes. Experimental results on series instances demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords

• multi-satellite on-board observation planning
• task allocation
• decentralized
• improved consensus-based bundle algorithm