Method, system, and apparatus for generating optimal imaging sequence for plurality of satellites

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12413690-B2
Application number	US-202418759018-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2024
Priority date	Aug 3, 2023
Publication date	Sep 9, 2025
Grant date	Sep 9, 2025

Abstract

Provided are a method, a system, and an apparatus for generating an optimal imaging sequence for a plurality of satellites. More particularly, provided are a method, a system, and an apparatus for generating an optimal imaging sequence for establishing an efficient imaging mission plan for a ground target imaging mission by using a plurality of earth observation satellites.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, performed by at least one computing device, of generating an optimal imaging sequence for a plurality of satellites, the method comprising:
obtaining a position and a target profit of each of I imaging targets;
obtaining orbit information about each of J satellites;
with respect to an arbitrary satellite j (jϵJ) from among the J satellites,
calculating K available times for imaging, each comprising an available start time for imaging and an available end time for imaging with respect to an arbitrary imaging target (i, iϵI) from among the I imaging targets;
with respect to an arbitrary first imaging target i and an arbitrary second imaging target i′ from among the I imaging targets, calculating a posture maneuverability time of the arbitrary satellite j for maneuvering from a first satellite posture for imaging the arbitrary first imaging target i to a second satellite posture for imaging the arbitrary second imaging target i′;
with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i and the arbitrary second imaging target i′ from among the I imaging targets, obtaining a result of availability of consecutive imaging between the arbitrary first imaging target i and the arbitrary second imaging target i′ based on a k th available time for imaging from among the K available times for imaging calculated with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i and the posture maneuverability time of the arbitrary satellite j;
based on the result of availability of the consecutive imaging between the arbitrary first imaging target i and the arbitrary second imaging target i′ from among the I imaging targets, generating a plurality of candidate imaging sequences comprising at least two arbitrary imaging targets (i, iϵI) from among the I imaging targets;
calculating a plurality of imaging sequence profits from the plurality of candidate imaging sequences, respectively, by using a pre-defined optimization objective function; and
determining, as an optimal imaging sequence, a set of at least two arbitrary imaging targets (i, iϵI), from among the I imaging targets, included in a candidate imaging sequence having a largest imaging sequence profit of the plurality of imaging sequence profits.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, with respect to the arbitrary satellite j (jϵJ) from among the J satellites, calculating T imaging sequence profits from T candidate imaging sequences, respectively,
wherein a t th imaging sequence profit P j,t corresponding to a t th candidate imaging sequence from among the T imaging sequence profits is calculated according to P j,t =Σ i=1 I Σ k=1 V ij p i x ijk,t
where I is a total number of imaging targets,
p i is a target profit of the arbitrary first imaging target i from among the I imaging targets,
V ij is a number of available times for imaging with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i, and
x ijk,t is an imaging determination value of the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i in the t th candidate imaging sequence.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the largest imaging sequence profit P is defined as P=max(Σ j=1 J Σ t=1 T p j,t ), and
the optimal imaging sequence comprises, in the t th candidate imaging sequence of the arbitrary satellite j (jϵJ) having the largest imaging sequence profit from among the J satellites, the arbitrary first imaging targets i having 1 as the imaging determination value x ijk,t for the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary imaging target (i, iϵI) from among the I imaging targets.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the obtaining of the result of availability of the consecutive imaging between the arbitrary first imaging target i and the arbitrary second imaging target i′ further comprises, when it is determined as t s ijk +t o ij +t m ii′j +t s j ≤t s i′jk , setting 1 as the imaging determination value x ijk,t of the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i in the t th candidate imaging sequence of the arbitrary satellite j,
wherein t s ijk is an actual start time for imaging by the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i during the k th available time for imaging from among the K available times for imaging possessed by the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i,
t s i′jk is an actual start time for imaging by the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary second imaging target i′ during the k th available time for imaging from among the K available times for imaging possessed by the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary second imaging target i′,
t o ij is an imaging time by the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i,
t m ii′j is a posture maneuverability time for the arbitrary satellite j to maneuver from a posture for imaging the arbitrary first imaging target i to a posture for imaging the arbitrary second imaging target i′, and
t s j is a posture stabilization time of the arbitrary satellite j.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the obtaining of the result of availability of the consecutive imaging between the arbitrary first imaging target i and the arbitrary second imaging target i′ further comprises:
when it is determined as t s ijk +t o ij +t m ii′j +t s j >t s i′jk , setting 0 as the imaging determination value x ijk,t of the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i in the t th candidate imaging sequence of the arbitrary satellite j; and
changing the arbitrary second imaging target i′ to another arbitrary imaging target (i″, i″ϵI) except for the arbitrary first imaging target i and the arbitrary second imaging target i′ from among the I imaging targets.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the actual start time t s ijk for imaging by the arbitrary satellite j during the k th available time for imaging possessed by the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i satisfies T ijk s ≤t s ijk
where T s ijk is an available start time for imaging of the k th available time for imaging, and
an actual end time t s ijk +t o ij for imaging by the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i during the k th available time for imaging satisfies t s ijk +t o ij ≤T e ijk
where T e ijk is an available end time for imaging of the k th available time for imaging.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein a maximum available time D t for imaging of the J satellites is defined as D t =Σ j=1 J Σ i=1 I Σ k=1 V ij t ij o x ijk,t , and
the maximum available time D t satisfies D t ≤Σ j=1 J d j
where d j is a maximum available time for imaging by the arbitrary satellite j.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the generating of the candidate imaging sequences of the arbitrary satellite j further comprises, when it is determined as t s ijk +t o ij +t m ii′j +t s j ≤t s i′jk , determining the arbitrary second imaging target i′ as a next imaging target of the arbitrary first imaging target i.

9. The method of claim 2 , wherein the imaging determination value x ijk,t of the arbitrary satellite j with respect to the arbitrary first imaging target i in the t th candidate imaging sequence of the arbitrary satellite j satisfies N i min ≤Σ j=1 J Σ k=1 V ij x ijk,t ≤N i max
where N i min is a pre-set minimum number of times of imaging of the arbitrary first imaging target i and
N i max is a pre-set maximum number of times of imaging of the arbitrary first imaging target i.

Assignees

• Korea Aerospace Res Inst

Inventors

• Lee Seonho
• Lee Kimoon
• Kim Dongjin
• Chung Dae Won

Classifications

• G06T2207/30181

  Earth observation · CPC title

• G06T2207/10032

  Satellite or aerial image; Remote sensing · CPC title

• G06T2207/10016

  Video; Image sequence · CPC title

• G06T7/70

  Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras (camera calibration G06T7/80) · CPC title

• H04N23/661

  Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet · CPC title