B-matching-based optimization model for energy allocation in sea surface monitoring

Abstract The sea surface monitoring is playing an important role in obtaining the ocean big data, especially for some businesses requiring complete coverage (e.g. the marine search and rescue). A great deal of energy consumption caused by observation leads to that the energy supply is more precious than the traditional observations. This study considers the problem of the energy allocation of sea-based observation (SOEA) to develop the energy conservation of sea surface monitoring. A b-Matching-based Area Division (BMAD) model is proposed to quantitatively define and analyze the SOEA problem. It reveals that SOEA is the b-matching problem of directed bipartite network. Three kinds of constraints are analyzed: the degree constraints mirroring the qualities of observations, the continuity constraint restricting the voidage of observation, and the conflict constraint addressing the interference between platforms. The objective and constraints are integratedly defined as an integer linear programming (ILP) problem, the optimum solution to which can be obtained by a proposed ILP algorithm. The solution can provide the approach to handling plenty of observation missions by the limited energy and tells the energy quota at least for the observation missions. The experimental evaluation shows that BMAD provides the effective planning of observation missions based on the limited energy and tells the energy reserve at least for observation.