MULTI-OBJECTIVE COMMUNICATION OPTIMIZATION METHODOLOGY WITH APPLICATION TO LUNAR ROBOTIC EXPLORATION.
- Paper number
IAC-10.B2.5.10
- Author
Ms. Alessandra Babuscia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States
- Coauthor
Dr. Leon Alkalai, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. John Elliott, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States
- Coauthor
Prof. David Miller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States
- Year
2010
- Abstract
In the context of the new phase of the robotic exploration of the Moon, the hypothesis of landing a number of landers on the far side is becoming interesting, since it opens the possibility of multiple seismological measurements. The transmission of scientific data from the far side of the Moon requires a relay satellite. In order to ensure complete coverage of the Moon surface, and continuous Earth visibility at the same time, a promising solution consists in locating the relay satellite around the Lagrangian point of the Earth-Moon system (EML2). On the other hand, a communication system between landers equipped with low power consumption transceivers, and a satellite located at more than 65000Km of distance is a challenging problem. The communication link budget is severely constrained in this case, and time as well as landers` locations, are resources that can be used to improve the performance of the system. Hence, in order to deal with this problem, a multi-objective optimization methodology has been applied. The objectives are: to maximize landers relative distances (in order to improve the quality of the seismological measurements), to maximize the total amount of data transmitted, and to minimize the transceivers power consumption. In order to accomplish these objectives a two steps optimization methodology is proposed. The methodology is composed by: an internal optimization and a system level optimization. The internal optimization is realized using a data rate based scheduling algorithm, which uses information from the link data rate to select the transmitting lander for each time interval. This type of scheduling approach optimizes the total amount of data transmitted with respect to a fair time resource allocation scheme. The scheduling technique takes as input transmitters coverage, sunlight and maximum available data rate. Using this information, the scheduling algorithm allocates resources (time and channels) in the network in a way to maximize the throughput and to minimize power consumption, while respecting a series of constraints. The system level optimization acts on landers locations with the objective of maximizing distances, and consequently the scientific value of the seismological measurements. The final result of the process defines a set of optimal landers locations and a set of optimal communication scheduling intervals. The algorithm has been implemented for a communication network of landers located in the lunar far side. However, the same methodology can be applied to similar types of robotic networks.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-10.B2.5.10.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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