Abstract: Constellation imaging scheduling for remote sensing satellites refers to imaging multiple ground target points by scheduling and allocating available satellite observation resources. In order to make the imaging scheduling scheme meet the mission requirements and have the optimal mission efficiency, the constellation imaging scheduling problem is usually formulated as an optimization problem with multiple constraints. In this paper, a satellite digital parallel system is presented, which simulates the operation and control process of satellite constellation in orbit. A digital twin satellite that simulates the functions of GNC subsystem, digital tube subsystem and TT&C subsystem is established in the system, which receives and executes real satellite control commands, and reflects the satellite attitude and orbit control process in the form of telemetry data. Considering the constraints of energy, time window, illumination and meteorological conditions in satellite multi target imaging, the problem of constellation imaging scheduling is modeled as a constrained optimization problem with the target revisit time as the optimization index. The feasible solution set of multi target imaging sequence is obtained through accelerated simulation of satellite digital parallel system, and the constellation imaging scheduling scheme with the highest revisit frequency of multi target points is obtained by solving the optimization problem. The simulation results show that the method proposed in this paper solves the problem of target assignment in constellation imaging scheduling, and the digital twin satellite model adopted can simulate the satellite attitude and orbit control process, thus ensuring that the method is more feasible and timelier in constellation imaging missions.

Key words: imaging scheduling, satellite constellation, digital parallel system, digital twin satellite