USING MULTI-AGENT TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DISTRIBUTED MANAGEMENT OF A CLUSTER OF REMOTE SENSING SATELLITES

摘要

In recent years, the interest for space missions involving multiple satellites has been rapidly growing. This trend is responsible for an increasing need for management strategies able to coordinate the different satellites and to allocate tasks among them. In most existing systems, the management of a cluster of satellites is organized centrally and statically, which significantly reduces the responsiveness to changes in the target environment. Our research aims at designing a distributed dynamic management system where tasks are assigned to a whole constellation of satellites and their performers can adaptively change depending on emerging events. In this paper, we explore the potentiality of multi-agent technology and ontology to develop an intelligent space system. We describe our software prototype and how it can be applied to the planning problem of remote sensing satellites. In this solution, each satellite has been represented as an agent enabling communication, coordination, and negotiation among the other agents to achieve intended business goals. Moreover, we present the results of experiments showing the advantages of the proposed approach.