Autonomous spacecraft control systems

A miniature spacecraft equipped with autonomous control authority can execute its missions with no human intervention. The spacecraft autonomously senses and interprets its environment and executes its corresponding decision tasks toward its intended goals. The systems must be highly reliable and adaptable to current conditions. Advanced guidance and control functions are a must to complex missions. In this paper, the authors present the fundamental elements of advanced intelligent control as are to be utilized for future spacecraft missions. The autonomous nature of the projected efforts dictates control strategies that remain effective in the presence of parametric uncertainties, perturbations and undesired extraneous inputs. Autonomy also implies a highly refined environment perception capability that allows direct and unambiguous interpretation of the surrounding scene profile. The coordination of advanced control with scene perception yields the key elements that will allow future spacecraft to execute their missions with success.