Optimization of Satellite Formation Reconfiguration

Satellite formation reconfiguration can significantly enhance the types and quality of collected data. Previous research by others has investigated different reconfiguration strategies. However, there has always been a predetermined mapping of the satellites transitioning from the location in the first formation to the location in the second formation. There are 24 different potential mappings for a formation of four satellites. The research presented here will include all potential mappings in the optimization process to determine the optimal formation reconfiguration strategy. Objective functions minimizing overall <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\Delta V$</tex> and balancing <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\Delta V$</tex> over all satellites will be implemented and compared. The inclusion of the nominal variable of the mapping will necessitate the use of metaheuristics for the op-timization process. The research will investigate multiple meta-heuristic algorithms to compare performance on these satellite formation reconfiguration problems.