An Architecture to Enable Autonomous Control of a Spacecraft

Abstract

Autonomy is required for manned spacecraft missions distant enough that light-time communication delays make ground-based mission control infeasible. Presently, ground controllers develop a complete schedule of power modes for all spacecraft components based on a large number of factors. The proposed architecture is an early attempt to formalize and automate this process using on-vehicle computation resources. In order to demonstrate this architecture, an autonomous electrical power system controller and vehicle Mission Manager are constructed. These two components are designed to work together in order to plan upcoming load use as well as respond to unanticipated deviations from the plan. The communication protocol was developed using "paper" simulations prior to formally encoding the messages and developing software to implement the required functionality. These software routines exchange data via TCP/IP sockets with the Mission Manager operating at NASA Ames Research Center and the autonomous power controller running at NASA Glenn Research Center. The interconnected systems are tested and shown to be effective at planning the operation of a simulated quasi-steady state spacecraft power system and responding to unexpected disturbances.

The Use of Software Agents for Autonomous Control of a DC Space Power System

“…The mission manager coordinates all of the various sub-systems on the spacecraft, such as life support, thermal, communications, and power to best achieve the desired mission objectives given operational constraints. A simple version of this architecture has been demonstrated on the NASA Habitat Demonstration Unit [1], [2] and work towards developing a prototype for interfacing with an autonomous power system is currently ongoing [3]. Further complicating the picture is that many proposed future spacecraft are actually This work was funded by the NASA Advanced Exploration Systems Project's Modular Power Systems Task.…”

Space Microgrids for Future Manned Lunar Bases: A Review

“…Presently for spacecraft and space base applications, the power schedules are prepared and communicated by the ground station. For ISS, three teams at different ground control centers communicate the power scheduling made with the consideration of specific requirements and constraints of different systems [73]. This ground-based scheduling is possible because of the low communication latency as the spacecraft revolves around the Earth.…”

“…In general, space MG control and operation management involve scheduling resources, planning the loads and their operating modes (active or survival), communicating vital information, coordinating resources, ensuring the timely occurrence of missions, and detecting, identifying, isolating, and recovering from faulty conditions among others [73], [74].…”

Simulation and Control Lab Development for Power and Energy Management for NASA Manned Deep Space Missions

“…The intelligent power management control can then be overlayed on the modular power system elements, being developed on the Advanced Modular Power Systems (AMPS) program, to allow NASA to construct the future deep space EPS simulations. NASA GRC has developed a controls laboratory at GRC that will allow for the development and validation of the advanced controls for energy management of Software In the Loop (SIL) and Hardware in the Loop (HIL) electrical power system demonstrations prior to deployment in a future space vehicle 5,6 . To demonstrate the feasibility of such a system, GRC is simulating the eight channels of the primary and secondary ISS EPS, and developing advanced autonomous agent technology to control the energy management of the EPS.…”