A hybrid algorithm for an integrated scheduling problem of agile Earth observation satellites

Satellites have important applications nowadays. They can be used, for example, to monitor natural disasters. This paper addresses an integrated scheduling problem of agile Earth observation satellites, whose objective is to maximize both the sum of profits associated with collected observation targets and the amount of data downloaded to ground stations. To solve the problem, we propose a hybrid algorithm that combines a MIP solver and a heuristic procedure. Computational experiments were conducted on proposed instances to evaluate the performance of the algorithm compared against an approach from the literature and with a standalone MIP solver. Regarding the literature, high-quality solutions were obtained for 29 out of 32 instances. With respect to the standalone MIP solver, the algorithm found competitive solutions, especially for the more challenging instances, with an improvement of up to 25.93%.