A Decomposition-Based Algorithm for Imaging Satellites Scheduling Problem

A decomposition-based optimization algorithm was proposed for solving imaging satellites scheduling problem. The problem was decomposed into task assignment main problem and single satellite scheduling sub-problem. In task assignment phase, the tasks were allocated to the satellites, and each satellite would schedule the task respectively in single satellite scheduling phase. We adopted an adaptive ant colony optimization algorithm to search the optimal task assignment scheme. A heuristic algorithm and a very fast simulated annealing algorithm were used to solve the single satellite scheduling problem. The task assignment scheme was valued by integrating the observation scheduling result of multiple satellites,and the result was responded to the ant colony optimization algorithm to guide the search process. Experiment results showed that the approach was effective.