Orbit Logic Tackles Autonomous Reconfigurable Spacecraft Swarms

July 13th, 2021

Orbit Logic has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract from NASA to develop the On-board Swarm Control for Autonomy and Responsiveness (OSCAR) solution – an onboard software solution employing autonomous collaborative planning in support of heterogeneous spacecraft swarms. OSCAR is being developed in partnership with the Autonomous Vehicle Systems (AVS) lab at the University of Colorado Boulder.

OSCAR will leverage Orbit Logic’s Autonomous Planning System (APS) onboard planning/response framework and the AVS Lab’s satellite formation flying simulation capability using the Basilisk framework [1] to develop a capability that will allow a swarm of planetary-orbiting satellites to dynamically adapt their configuration to accommodate varying mission needs. OSCAR will determine, plan and orchestrate the relative movement of each swarm element to achieve mission-enabling formations. “Convoys” or “string-of-pearls” (subfigure A) will allow events detected by leading satellites to trigger follow-up responses by following satellites. Offset, time-varying double echelons (subfigure B) will provide coverage of large swaths of ground area. Single (subfigure C) or multiple (subfigure D) synthetic apertures will enable coordinated collection of space-resident or planetary surface data by selected subgroups of asset elements.

An instance of APS would operate onboard each swarm asset to provide asset level resource planning and independence – enabling autonomous cooperation between assets over intermittently available communication links. Onboard, OSCAR would determine times at which new formations would be necessary (e.g., in preparation for a specific type of science gathering or in response to an unanticipated dynamic event), and then plan and orchestrate the movement of individual satellites between these configurations without the assistance of mission control. These adaptive strategies would be useful on Mars, to seek and track dust devils, and on Enceladus or Europa, to identify and then closely monitor unpredicted geyser eruptions.

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