Satellite Scheduling Engine: General-Purpose Modeling and Intelligent Optimization Methods

Since the 21st century, national aerospace industry has developed rapidly with an explosive increase in satellites. To coordinate the in-orbit satellites and their management resources for better social, economic, and military applications, the satellite task scheduling is required. As the satellite management and application manners change over the years, cross-agency and cross-model have become the new normal, and the integration and quick-response have become the new requirements. Under such circumstances, the one satellite, one system shortcoming in system development and application occurs, while those systems that differ in agencies, modes, and types cannot accommodate each other; hence, the generality of satellite scheduling models and algorithm must be strengthened. To address the one satellite, one system shortcoming, the cooperative, flexible, efficient applications, and the monopoly of the U.S. STK/Scheduler, a Satellite Task Scheduling Engine that contains general-purpose modeling and optimization methods is studied in this book.

Yonghao Du received the B.S. degree from the Southeast University, China, in 2015. and the M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree from the National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China, in 2017 and 2021, respectively. He is currently an associate professor with the College of Systems Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, China. He is suppoted by the Youth Support Funds of China Association for Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His research interests include intelligent optimization, resource scheduling, and mission planning. His satellite scheduling engine and algorithms introduced in this book have been applied to real-world satellites operation and management.

Lining Xing received the double B.S. degrees in economics and science from Xian Jiaotong University, Shanxi, China, in 2002, and the Ph.D. degree in management science from the National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China, in 2009. He is currently a Professor with the School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University. His research interests include intelligent optimization, resource scheduling, and mission planning. He is the recipient of the National Excellent Ph.D. Dissertation of China Award, in 2014, the Excellent Talent Support Program 736 in New Century from the Ministry of Education, China, and the Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists from the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan.

Li Lei was born in 2001. He received his B.S. degree from National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China, in 2023, where he is currently pursuing the Ph. D. degree in management science with the College of Systems Engineering. His research interests include intelligent optimization and mission scheduling.