Multi-Satellite Observation Scheduling Based on a Hybrid Ant Colony Optimization

Abstract—In this paper, we attempted to find an effective method to resolve multi-satellite observation scheduling problems. Firstly, an acyclic directed graph model for multi-satellite observation scheduling was constructed. Secondly, based on the graph model, we presented a novel hybrid ant colony optimization mixed with the iteration local search algorithm (ACO-ILS) to produce high quality schedules. At last, extensive experimental simulations demonstrated that the proposed ACO-ILS algorithm is very efficient. Keywords-Satellite scheduling; ant colony optimization; iteration local search; acyclic directed graph I