The Earth Phenomena Observing System: Intelligent Autonomy for Satellite Operations
Abstract
Earth monitoring systems of the future may include large numbers of inexpensive small satellites, tasked in a coordinated fashion to observe both long term and transient targets. For best performance, a tool which helps operators optimally assign targets to satellites will be required. We present the design of algorithms developed for real-time optimized autonomous planning of large numbers of small single-sensor Earth observation satellites. The algorithms will reduce requirements on the human operators of such a system of satellites, ensure good utilization of system resources, and provide the capability to dynamically respond to temporal terrestrial phenomena. Our initial real-time system model consists of approximately 100 satellites and large number of points of interest on Earth (e.g., hurricanes, volcanoes, and forest fires) with the objective to maximize the total science value of observations over time. Several options for calculating the science value of observations include the following: (1) total observation time, (2) number of observations, and the (3) quality (a function of e.g., sensor type, range, slant angle) of the observations. An integrated approach using integer programming, optimization and astrodynamics is used to calculate optimized observation and sensor tasking plans.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA484897
Entities
People
- David Carter
- Mark Abramson
- Michael Ricard
- Stephan Kolitz
Organizations
- Charles Stark Draper Laboratory