Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Science
Planning
and
Mission
Manager
Plan
Plan
Data
Analysis
Monitor
Spacecraft
Manage
Mission
Act
(Communicate)
Science Plan
Spacecraft
Telemetry
Mission
Planning
Plan
Platform
Analysis
Act
Plan
Spacecraft
Sequence
Generation
Monitor
Spacecraft
Perform
Steps
Fig. 7.14.
Cooperative autonomy view of spacecraft mission control
As in the previous example, the science planning team is shared be-
tween all spacecraft that are cooperating as a virtual platform. This is where
the similarity ends. Once the science plan is generated, it is communicated
directly to the spacecraft. The top level planning component of each space-
craft negotiates with its counterparts on the other spacecraft to determine
their individual responsibilities in the global mission. Once the negotiations
are complete, each spacecraft performs its mission and returns results to the
science team. In conjunction with the science team, a small staff will be re-
quired to monitor the overall virtual platform and address any problems that
may occur.
This approach to virtual platforms is very attractive. Using the numbers
from the previous example, this architecture only requires five team members,
no matter how many spacecraft are involved in the virtual platform. This
compares very favorably to the 44 staff members necessary to manage a ten-
spacecraft virtual platform when the current mission architecture is used.
7.6 Examples of Cooperative Autonomy
Cooperative autonomy requires many different technologies to be synthesized
into a functional whole. Aspects of cooperative autonomy can be found in
hundreds of projects. This section will outline several projects that incorpo-
rate one or more technologies that support the development of cooperative
autonomy. The projects were selected to give the reader a cross-section of the
technologies available.
