Innovations in the field of on-board scheduling technologies

TL;DR

This paper introduces an onboard scheduling system for space missions that enhances autonomy by optimizing activity timing using linear integer programming, tested on Earth Observation scenarios to outperform existing methods.

Contribution

It presents a novel onboard scheduler integrating linear integer programming within a mission autonomy framework, improving scheduling efficiency for space operations.

Findings

Outperforms state-of-the-art scheduling technology in tests

Demonstrates effectiveness in Earth Observation scenarios

Enhances mission autonomy and reduces operational costs

Abstract

Space missions are characterized by long distances, difficult or unavailable communication and high operating costs. Moreover, complexity has been constantly increasing in recent years. For this reason, improving the autonomy of space operators is an attractive goal to increase the mission reward with lower costs. This paper proposes an onboard scheduler, that integrates inside an onboard software framework for mission autonomy. Given a set of activities, it is responsible for determining the starting time of each activity according to their priority, order constraints, and resource consumption. The presented scheduler is based on linear integer programming and relies on the use of a branch-and-cut solver. The technology has been tested on an Earth Observation scenario, comparing its performance against the state-of-the-art scheduling technology.