Decentralized, Decomposition-Based Observation Scheduling for a Large-Scale Satellite Constellation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1609/icaps.v34i1.31535Abstract
Deploying multi-satellite constellations for Earth observation requires coordinating potentially hundreds of spacecraft. With increasing on-board capability for autonomy, we can view the constellation as a multi-agent system (MAS) and employ decentralized scheduling solutions. We formulate the problem as a distributed constraint optimization problem (DCOP) and desire scalable inter-agent communication. The problem consists of millions of variables which, coupled with the structure, make existing DCOP algorithms inadequate for this application. We develop a scheduling approach that employs a well-coordinated heuristic, referred to as the Geometric Neighborhood Decomposition (GND) heuristic, to decompose the global DCOP into sub-problems as to enable the application of DCOP algorithms. We present the Neighborhood Stochastic Search (NSS) algorithm, a decentralized algorithm to effectively solve the multi-satellite constellation observation scheduling problem using decomposition. In full, we identify the roadblocks of deploying DCOP solvers to a large-scale, real-world problem, propose a decomposition-based scheduling approach that is effective at tackling large scale DCOPs, empirically evaluate the approach against other baseline algorithms to demonstrate the effectiveness, and discuss the generality of the approach.Downloads
Published
2024-05-30
How to Cite
Zilberstein, I., Rao, A., Salis, M., & Chien, S. (2024). Decentralized, Decomposition-Based Observation Scheduling for a Large-Scale Satellite Constellation. Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, 34(1), 716-724. https://doi.org/10.1609/icaps.v34i1.31535