AbstractMulti-platform swarm/cluster missions are an attractive prospect for improved science return as they provide a natural capability for temporal, spatial and signal separation with further engineering and economic advantages. As spacecraft numbers increase and/or the round-trip communications delay from Earth lengthens, the traditional “remote-control” approach begins to break down. It is therefore essential to push control into space; to make spacecraft more autonomous.An autonomous group of spacecraft requires coordination, but standard terrestrial paradigms such as negotiation, require high levels of inter-spacecraft communication, which is nontrivial in space. This article therefore introduces the principals of stigmergy as a novel method for coordinating a cluster. Stigmergy is an agent-based, behavioural approach that allows for infrequent communication with decisions based on local information. Behaviours are selected dynamically using a genetic algorithm onboard. supervisors/ground stations occasionally adjust parameters and disseminate a “common environment” that is used for local decisions.After outlining the system, an analysis of some crucial parameters such as communications overhead and number of spacecraft is presented to demonstrate scalability. Further scenarios are considered to demonstrate the natural ability to deal with dynamic situations such as the failure of spacecraft, changing mission objectives and responding to sudden bursts of high priority tasks.
Stigmergy based behavioural coordination for satellite clusters
Acta Astronautica ; 66 , 7-8 ; 1052-1071
2009-09-18
20 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Stigmergy based behavioural coordination for satellite clusters
Online Contents | 2010
|From Ants to Service Robots : an Exploration in Stigmergy-Based Navigation Algorithms
BASE | 2018
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