Scheduling an agile Earth observation satellite with a defined mission using discrete event supervisory control

Finding the best possible scheduling to maximize observations and transfer them to the ground station is very important as a function of satellite characteristics, orbital mechanics, attitude control system, field of view and observational objectives. The combination of the agility of the satellite with regard to the ability to quick maneuver along the three axes of roll, pitch and yaw, with a suitable software can significantly improve the response rate, revisit time and satellite coverage. In this regard, the design of a comprehensive scheduling that automatically creates an optimal operational sequence for the maximum utilization of agile Earth observation satellites during a certain period of time in order to respond to the needs and priorities of the users and to satisfy the operational limitations of the satellites. Therefore, in this article, the design of an automatic software for scheduling Earth observation satellites is presented, which after receiving observation targets from the user and assigning observation priority to each task, the ability to implement and execute observation tasks is checked by the attitude control subsystem to satisfy the attitude maneuver limit around the roll and pitch axes and orbital mechanics subsystem to satisfy the target access time window limit. With the help of supervisory control, constraints are applied to the transfer system to add specific features and requirements to the mission., With the help of an optimal search algorithm based on the Bellman-Ford method, the optimal program sequence is obtained for the maximum use of the satellite while meeting the operational limitations of the mission. Finally, A remote sensing mission is simulated to demonstrate the planned verification.