Alejandra Estanislao
Alejandra Estanislao is a Senior Software Engineer, working in the Operations Research team. Since she joined Google in 2013, she has worked, among others, on routing StreetView fleets, scheduling satellite operations, optimizing space planning, and placing racks in datacenters.
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Optimal Scheduling of a Constellation of Earth-Imaging Satellites, for Maximal Data Throughput and Efficient Human Management
ICAPS 2016 (International Conference on Automated Planning & Scheduling), London, UK
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A mixed-integer linear program (MILP) approach to scheduling a constellation of Earth-imaging satellites is presented. The algorithm optimizes the assignment of imagery collects, image data downlinks, and "health \& safety" contacts, generating schedules for all satellites and ground stations in a network. Hardware-driven constraints (e.g., the limited agility of the satellites) and operations-driven constraints (e.g., guaranteeing a minimum contact frequency for each satellite) are both addressed. Of critical importance to the use of this algorithm in real-world operations, it runs fast enough to allow for human operator interaction. This is achieved by a novel partitioning of the problem into distinct MILPs for downlink scheduling and image scheduling, with a dynamic programming (DP) heuristic providing a stand-in for imaging activity when scheduling the downlinks.
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