Session
Weekend Session V: Automation - Research and Academia
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
Autonomy - the ability of system to retask itself in response to unexpected/unmodeled events - is an enabling technology for space missions. However, autonomy carries risk: what if the system makes unexpected or dangerous decisions? How can human operators trust that the system will not exceed certain bounds of behavior? Are we sure that an autonomous vehicle will outperform a human-directed system?
To address these questions, the Space Systems Research Laboratory (SSRL) of Saint Louis University is developing the Distributed Observation Reasoning and Reaction Experiment (DORRE). DORRE consists of 8 spacecraft operating together in low-Earth orbit to conduct a series of experiments based around event detection and response. Using on-board RF sensors and imagers, the performance of a human-directed team of operators will be measured against the autonomous network: quantifying cost of operations, timeliness of response, accuracy of performance and introduction of risk.
The DORRE experiment will quantify the design parameters where autonomy can improve over human performance (e.g., mission geometry, communications architecture, timeliness of response). The DORRE spacecraft are identical low-cost 3U vehicles in development in SSRL. At present, DORRE consists of one pathfinder spacecraft scheduled to launch in the latter half of 2024 (DARLA), a second pathfinder in assembly (DARLA-02) and an extensive flight-software-in-the-loop multi-spacecraft simulator used to test experiments and operations.
As the project was refined, it became clear that the process to assemble and test of 8 spacecraft in a university environment was an entire mission unto its own. SSRL lacks the facilities to truly automate the assembly & test process, but many of the principles of automation can and have been applied to this student-labor-intensive project. The lessons learned thus far and a proposed approach for (more) rapid assembly of multiple flight vehicles will be presented.
This paper will outline the DORRE mission concept and spacecraft design, focusing on the simulation and hardware-in-the-loop tests of the autonomous flight experiments. The near-term flight plans for DARLA and DARLA-02 will be presented, as well as the process to accelerate the assembly & test campaign. The paper will conclude with an overview of the pathway to flight in late 2025.
DORRE: Autonomous Event Response Using an 8-Spacecraft Constellation
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Autonomy - the ability of system to retask itself in response to unexpected/unmodeled events - is an enabling technology for space missions. However, autonomy carries risk: what if the system makes unexpected or dangerous decisions? How can human operators trust that the system will not exceed certain bounds of behavior? Are we sure that an autonomous vehicle will outperform a human-directed system?
To address these questions, the Space Systems Research Laboratory (SSRL) of Saint Louis University is developing the Distributed Observation Reasoning and Reaction Experiment (DORRE). DORRE consists of 8 spacecraft operating together in low-Earth orbit to conduct a series of experiments based around event detection and response. Using on-board RF sensors and imagers, the performance of a human-directed team of operators will be measured against the autonomous network: quantifying cost of operations, timeliness of response, accuracy of performance and introduction of risk.
The DORRE experiment will quantify the design parameters where autonomy can improve over human performance (e.g., mission geometry, communications architecture, timeliness of response). The DORRE spacecraft are identical low-cost 3U vehicles in development in SSRL. At present, DORRE consists of one pathfinder spacecraft scheduled to launch in the latter half of 2024 (DARLA), a second pathfinder in assembly (DARLA-02) and an extensive flight-software-in-the-loop multi-spacecraft simulator used to test experiments and operations.
As the project was refined, it became clear that the process to assemble and test of 8 spacecraft in a university environment was an entire mission unto its own. SSRL lacks the facilities to truly automate the assembly & test process, but many of the principles of automation can and have been applied to this student-labor-intensive project. The lessons learned thus far and a proposed approach for (more) rapid assembly of multiple flight vehicles will be presented.
This paper will outline the DORRE mission concept and spacecraft design, focusing on the simulation and hardware-in-the-loop tests of the autonomous flight experiments. The near-term flight plans for DARLA and DARLA-02 will be presented, as well as the process to accelerate the assembly & test campaign. The paper will conclude with an overview of the pathway to flight in late 2025.
