A population perturbation and elimination strategy based genetic algorithm for multi-satellite TT&C scheduling problem

Abstract The Multi-satellite Tracking Telemetry and Command (TT&C) Scheduling, a multi-constrained and high-conflict complex combinatorial optimization problem, is a typical NP-hard problem. The effective utilization of existing TT&C resources has always played a key role in the satellite field. This paper first simplified the problem and established a corresponding mathematical model with the hybrid objective of maximizing the profit and task completion rate. Considering the significant effect of genetic algorithm in solving the problem of resource allocation, a population perturbation and elimination strategy based genetic algorithm (GA-PE) which focused on the Multi-Satellite TT&C Scheduling problem was proposed. For each case, a task scheduling sequence was first obtained through the GA-PE algorithm, and then a task planning algorithm will be used to determine which tasks can be scheduled. Compared with several efficient heuristic algorithms, a series of computational experiments have illustrated its better performance in both profit and task completion rates. The experiments of strategy and parameter sensitivity verification have investigated the performance of GA-PE in various aspects thoroughly.