A two-phase scheduling method with the consideration of task clustering for earth observing satellites

Satellite observation scheduling plays a significant role in improving the efficiency of satellite observation systems. Although extensive scheduling algorithms have been proposed for the satellite observation scheduling problem (SOSP), the task clustering strategy has not been taken into account up to now. This paper presents a novel two-phase based scheduling method with the consideration of task clustering for solving SOSP. This method comprises two phases: a task clustering phase and a task scheduling phase. In the task clustering phase, we construct a task clustering graph model and use an improved minimum clique partition algorithm to obtain cluster-tasks. In the task scheduling phase, based on overall tasks and obtained cluster-tasks, we construct an acyclic directed graph model and utilize a hybrid ant colony optimization coming with a mechanism of local search, called ACO-LS, to produce optimal or near optimal schedules. Extensive experimental simulations demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed scheduling method. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.