A multi-objective binary-encoding differential evolution algorithm for proactive scheduling of agile earth observation satellites

A robust model and a Multi-objective Binary-encoding Differential Evolution (MBDE) algorithm are proposed in this paper for agile earth observation satellite proactive scheduling considering satellite resource failure and emergency task insertion. Firstly, considering that the reserved slack time in schedule can absorb uncertainties, two indicators are proposed: schedule profits and slack time, based on which, a robust model of proactive scheduling is established. Secondly, to solve the multi-objective model, solutions are represented via binary-encoding, mutation, crossover, and selection operators are re-designed, besides, an external archive update strategy is adopted to store elitist solutions in the evolution process, moreover, non-dominated Pareto set evaluation metrics are improved. Finally, computational results have demonstrated that, compared with NSGA-II and SPEA-2, the MBDE algorithm is able to obtain well-distributed solutions with good convergence more efficiently. The study can provide the method support for proactive scheduling of agile earth observation satellites.