Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
{Coordinates the agent community in the MCC, manages
mission goals and coordinates the Contact manager agent}
S/C
Agent 1
Proxy
{There is a proxy agent for each spacecraft in orbit.
The agents keep track of spacecraft status and
will flag the Mission Management agent when an
anomaly occurs that may need handling}
MCC
Manager
S/C
Agent 2
Proxy
Contact
Manager
Agent
S/C
Agent N
Proxy
User
Interface
Agent
Scientists
Engineers,
Operators,
{Provides interface and interaction
mechanisms to the outside world}
{Plans and schedules contacts with the spacecraft
via Interface with external planner/scheduler
(external resource)}
MCC Planning
and scheduling
Agent
{Coordinates ground station activities (one agent per ground station),
Communicates with spacecraft, sends and receives commands
and telemetry}
Fig. 4.7.
Agent community developed in ACT to test the new agent architecture
and community concepts
scenario corresponded to the migration of this community of proxy agents to
the spacecraft themselves, to support an evaluation of space-based autonomy
concepts.
In this scenario, several nanosatellites are in orbit collecting magneto-
sphere data. The Mission Operations Control Center (MOCC) makes contact
with selected spacecraft according to its planned schedule when the spacecraft
(S/C) come into view.
The agents that would make up the MOCC would be:
•
Mission Manager Agent: Coordinates the agent community in the MOCC,
manages mission goals, and coordinates CMAs.
•
Contact Manager Agent (CMA): Coordinates ground station activities
(one agent per ground station), communicates with the spacecraft, and
sends and receives data, commands, and telemetry.
•
User interface: Interfaces with the user to accept commands for the space-
craft and sends data to be displayed.
•
MOCC Planning/Scheduling Agent: Plans and schedules contacts with the
spacecraft via interface with external planner/scheduler.
•
Spacecraft Proxy Agents: There is one proxy agent for each spacecraft in
orbit. The agents keep track of spacecraft status, health and safety, etc.
The agents will notify the Mission Manager Agent when there occurs an
anomaly that may need handling.
Each of the above agents registers with the Ground Control Center (GCC)
manager agent. The GCC manager agent notifies the agents when there is an
impending contact for their spacecraft, and when another agent is going to
