A heuristic method for selecting and scheduling observations of satellites with limited agility

As a new application area of automation, Earth observing satellite imaging provides timely optical/radar information which is used for commercial, environmental and military applications. As the satellite passes over the Earth, onboard camera imaging parameters need to be specified to focus and capture data within request zones. The satellite scheduling problem arises when there are competing client requests and limited agility of the satellite: we want to automatically choose the satellite imaging parameters that will maximize the coverage and value of the requested images. In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm for selecting and scheduling observations of satellites with limited agility, as well as a solution for an implicit clustering subproblem of capturing images in clusters of contiguous requested regions. The algorithm has been tested on different satellites configurations in order to prove its efficiency and to guide the development of satellite performances.