A Design-Oriented Characterization Framework for Decentralized, Distributed, Autonomous Systems: The Nano-Satellite Swarm Case

• Published in: IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems proceedings pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Araguz, Carles, Closa, Marc, Bou-Balust, Elisenda, Alarcon, Eduard
• Format: Conference Proceeding Publication
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.05.2019; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Subjects: Artificial satellites in navigation; Autonomy; Computational modeling; Computer architecture; Distributed satellite systems; Enginyeria de la telecomunicació; Multi-agent systems; Nano-satellite swarm; Orbits; Radiocomunicació i exploració electromagnètica; Satellites; Satèl·lits artificials en navegació; Satèl·lits i ràdioenllaços; Self-organizing systems; Space vehicles; Trajectory; Unified modeling language; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC
• ISBN: 9781728103976; 1728103975; 9781728103983; 1728103983
• ISSN: 2158-1525
• DOI: 10.1109/ISCAS.2019.8702249

The design of autonomous operational schemes for distributed, decentralized systems is expected to bring multiple qualities to systems of this kind. One of their instances are Earth-observing swarms of nano-satellites, in which their collective function targets global performance figures. The design of autonomous operations can be modelled as a collective scheduling problem subject to resource constraints. There are many system-wide qualities of interest, such as resiliency, adaptability, responsiveness, among others, that need specific frameworks to characterize the proposed solutions. This paper presents one such design-oriented tool that can evaluate these autonomous organization schemes-potentially for large-scale and highly heterogeneous scenarios with dynamic contexts and multiple time-scales-and illustrates its usage in the evaluation of an autonomous nano-satellite swarm that collectively optimizes revisit times.