SBIR-STTR Award

Orbit Logic is teamed with the University of Colorado at Boulder to develop Intelligent Navigation, Planning, and Autonomy for Swarm Systems (IN-PASS). The proposed technology builds on proven software – to enable flexible composition of collaborative mission concepts assessed in an open simulation environment. The focus of IN-PASS is rover autonomous navigation – specifically development of onboard algorithms to reduce uncertainty in rover localization minimizing use of onboard resources. The solution will apply to a heterogeneous swarm of lunar orbital and surface assets. For example, a constellation of CubeSats provides GPS-like navigation services to aid onboard estimation of rover state to inform onboard planning. When a limited number of satellites are deployed, the constellation cannot continually provide measurement support; hence the system will use Event-Trigged Distributed Data Fusion (ET-DDF) between swarm assets to maintain a high-degree of state knowledge with minimal data exchange. Team awareness is critical to coordinating activities to achieve mission goals while optimizing use of asset resources and responding to dynamic events. Mission plan optimization determines resources to engage during certain mission phases to ensure success. This is particularly true for inter-asset communications or localization, which employ hardware components and processing that utilize significant stored energy. This STTR focuses on development of onboard planning algorithms based on formal methods that determine the degree of resource utilization required to successfully achieve mission activities. Earth-based mission control operators or astronauts participating in-the-loop with these swarms will specify mission goals. The proposed research considers the most effective interaction between humans and swarm elements including specification of goals, interactive feedback on viability of the human’s requests, and ultimate delivery of the resulting science to the human. Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) Missions with autonomous control, coordination, and localization of heterogenous assets operating in dynamic environments: planetary surface exploration; survey, sampling, and characterization; surface collaborative infrastructure construction/repair; planetary orbital asset collaboration for optimized/event-based space-ground sensor collection/processing; convoys of spacecraft en-route to solar system destinations; coordinating science team behaviors for faults/anomalies. IN-PASS is suitable for small or large swarms. Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) Collaborative Earth observing satellite constellations, coordinated space/ground sensor systems supporting enhanced space situational awareness, coordination of data chain orchestration for data analytics, collaborative autonomous maritime (surface and underwater) missions, coordination of teams of ground orbits and/or air vehicles for science, search/rescue.

Orbit Logic is teamed with the University of Colorado Boulder to develop the Intelligent Navigation, Planning, and Autonomy for Swarm Systems (IN-PASS) Solution, which builds on Orbit Logic’s proven Autonomous Planning System (APS) decentralized planning framework to enable the configuration and execution of collaborative mission concepts. Assessments can be performed completely virtually within an open simulation environment, or can be deployed to physical assets in a testbed or operational environment. We apply IN-PASS to heterogeneous swarms of Lunar orbital and surface assets. For example, the satellite constellation overhead plans sensor collections in support of multiple objectives – surface asset localization and surface chemistry detection. APS plans the delivery of data products to a surface asset with high computing capacity, where algorithms are invoked and output the location of rovers and areas of interest (AOIs) for contact science. Location measurements allow Decentralized Data Fusion to maintain shared team awareness - critical to the team’s ability to autonomously coordinate. AOI events are trigger events for rovers to navigate to the location. A formal methods approach to onboard planning is employed on the rover assets that utilizes a Markov Data Process to balance performance, resource usage and safety. This is particularly important for inter-asset communications or localization - operational functions that utilize significant stored energy. Astronauts can participate in-the-loop with these swarms using devices running interactive user interfaces that allow them to a) specify mission goals, b) receive feedback on the satisfaction of their requests as the team performs the associated tasks, c) receive and display the end data associated with their requests, and d) actually collaborate with the autonomous robots by electing to assume tasks they are well suited to perform. Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) IN-PASS applies to missions with autonomous control, coordination, and localization of heterogenous assets operating in dynamic environments: planetary surface exploration, survey, sampling, and characterization; surface collaborative infrastructure construction/repair; planetary orbital asset collaboration for optimized/event-based space-ground sensor collection/processing; convoys of spacecraft en-route to solar system destinations; coordinating science team behaviors for faults/anomalies. IN-PASS is suitable for small or large swarms. Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) Collaborative Earth observing satellite constellations, coordinated space/ground sensor systems supporting enhanced space situational awareness, coordination of data chain orchestration for data analytics, collaborative autonomous maritime (surface and underwater) missions, coordination of teams of ground orbits and/or air vehicles for science, fire detection/mitigation, search/rescue.