Rendezvous phasing special-point maneuvers mixed discrete-continuous optimization using simulated annealing

The design of a rendezvous phasing special-point maneuvers can be formulated as a mixed one-zero, integer and continuous design variables problem. A hybrid approach combining simulated annealing (SA) with Newton's method is proposed for solving this problem. An integer-coded SA is used to handle the discrete design variables, while Newton's method is applied to handle the continuous design variables. Three improvements are employed to make the proposed approach more efficient and robust. A two-day low-earth rendezvous-phasing problem is used as an example. The effects of the improvements are investigated. The results show that the SA based hybrid approach is very effective and efficient and the SA has better convergence ability compared with an integer-coded genetic algorithm.