Consensus-based Task Scheduling Algorithm for Agile Earth Observation Satellites with Different Authorities

This paper presents a consensus-based task scheduling algorithm for agile earth observation satellites (AEOS) operated by multiple authorities. AEOS has higher maneuverability that extends the visible time windows for the observation tasks. Scheduling multiple AEOS is an NP-hard problem that requires an appropriate algorithm that suits a given problem setting. This study concerns the situation when multiple authorities are cooperating to solve a joint task scheduling problem using the AEOS that are controlled by the authorities individually. The problem is addressed such that the authorities make a consensus of which tasks to accept depending on whose satellites can execute with the highest benefit in terms of image quality. A consensus-based bundle algorithm (CBBA) is used to apply the consensus architecture for the AEOS scheduling problem (AEOSSP). Numerical simulation is conducted to assess the suitability of the proposed algorithm to the problem. The results are compared with a greedy heuristic and showed that the proposed algorithm suitably allocates tasks to the satellites that can obtain relatively higher profit compared to the satellites from other authorities.