Authors:
Sotiria Lampoudi
1
;
Eric Saunders
2
and
Jason Eastman
2
Affiliations:
1
University of California, United States
;
2
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, United States
Keyword(s):
Scheduling, Integer Linear Programming, Astronomy.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications
;
Artificial Intelligence
;
Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval
;
Knowledge-Based Systems
;
Linear Programming
;
Mathematical Modeling
;
Methodologies and Technologies
;
Operational Research
;
Optimization
;
OR in Education
;
Pattern Recognition
;
Resource Allocation
;
Scheduling
;
Software Engineering
;
Symbolic Systems
Abstract:
Telescope networks are gaining traction due to their promise of higher resource utilization than single telescopes and as enablers of novel astronomical observation modes. However, as telescope network sizes increase, the possibility of scheduling them completely or even semi-manually disappears. In an earlier paper, a step towards software telescope scheduling was made with the specification of the Reservation formalism, through the use of which astronomers can express their complex observation needs and preferences. In this paper we build on that work. We present a solution to the discretized version of the problem of scheduling a telescope network. We derive a solvable integer linear programming (ILP) model based on the Reservation formalism. We show computational results verifying its correctness, and confirm that our Gurobi-based implementation can address problems of realistic size. Finally, we extend the ILP model to also handle the novel
observation requests that can be speci
fied using the more advanced Compound Reservation formalism.
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