Collaborative mission optimization for ship rapid search by multiple heterogeneous remote sensing satellites

Abstract

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>Multiple heterogeneous satellites mission optimization is a typical kind of non-deterministic polynomial-time hard (NP-hard) problem, and some complicated scenarios bring new challenges. A novel method of missing ship rapid search using multiple grouped heterogeneous satellites is introduced in this paper. The focus is on optimization of collaborative mission optimization for various satellites including low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite and geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites. A fast coverage of the wide sea area using imaging satellites with narrow coverage range has become the most important part to tackle this problem. However, due to different imaging mechanisms of heterogeneous satellites and other constraints, it brings a great challenge to construct the optimization model. A constrained optimization problem model considering the cooperation between LEO and GEO satellites is constructed. A solution strategy based on bi-level metaheuristic algorithm is designed. The time optimal solution of the collaborative task planning between LEO and GEO satellites can be obtained based on the optimal attitude maneuver path of GEO satellites. Thus, wide-area search for missing ships can be conducted in an effective way. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by an example.</p>