Task Allocation of Multi-Target Observation for Microsatellite Cluster

Microsatellite clusters are playing an important role in implementing on-orbit service collaboratively, which are potential in space operations. However, how to get a feasible allocation scheme for microsatellite clusters when performing a multi-target task is a great challenge. Here we proposed an algorithm, which integrates ant colony algorithm and response threshold method as well as considering target value, fuel consumption and fuel consumption balance under the constraints of satellite resources and task requirements. The proposed algorithm has a good performance of fast convergence and global optimization by introducing the response threshold model as the heuristic information and taking advantage of the positive feedback of the ant colony algorithm (ACA) to improve the search efficiency of global optimal solution. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.