Gaussian pigeon-inspired optimization approach to orbital spacecraft formation reconfiguration

With the rapid development of space technology, orbital spacecraft formation has received great attention from international and domestic academics and industry. Compared with a single monolithic, the orbital spacecraft formation system has many advantages. This paper presents an improved pigeon-inspired optimization (PIO) algorithm for solving the optimal formation reconfiguration problems of multiple orbital spacecraft. Considering that the uniform distribution random searching system in PIO has its own weakness, a modified PIO model adopting Gaussian strategy is presented and the detailed process is also given. Comparative experiments with basic PIO and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are conducted, and the results have verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed Gaussian PIO (GPIO) in solving orbital spacecraft formation reconfiguration problems. (C) 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of CSAA & BUAA.