Digital and Robotic Twinning for Validation of Proximity Operations and Formation Flying

TL;DR

The hybrid twinning framework is introduced, calibration and error characterization of the robotic testbeds are summarized, and GNC performance across multiple operational modes in a full-range RPO scenario in LEO is evaluated, validating the hybrid twinning pipeline as a reliable framework for realistic assessment and verification of GNC systems.

Abstract

Spacecraft Rendezvous, Proximity Operations (RPO), and Formation Flying (FF) rely on safety-critical guidance, navigation and control (GNC) that must satisfy stringent performance and robustness requirements. However, verifying GNC performance is challenging due to the complexity and inaccessibility of the space environment, necessitating a verification and validation (V\&V) process that bridges simulation and real-world behavior. This paper contributes a unified, closed-loop, end-to-end digital and robotic twinning framework that enables software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing of spacecraft GNC systems. The framework is designed for modularity and flexibility, supporting interchangeable sensing modalities, control algorithms, and operational regimes. The digital twin includes an event-driven faster-than-real-time simulation environment to support rapid prototyping. The architecture is augmented with hardware-based robotic testbeds from Stanford's Space Rendezvous Laboratory (SLAB): the GNSS and Radiofrequency Autonomous Navigation Testbed for Distributed Space Systems (GRAND) to validate RF-based navigation techniques, and the Testbed for Rendezvous and Optical Navigation (TRON) and Optical Stimulator (OS) to validate vision-based methods. The test article for this work is an integrated multi-modal GNC software stack developed at SLAB. This paper introduces the hybrid twinning framework, summarizes calibration and error characterization of the robotic testbeds, and evaluates GNC performance across multiple operational modes in a full-range RPO scenario in LEO. The results demonstrate consistency between software- and hardware-in-the-loop tests with clear explainability for deviations in performance, thus validating the hybrid twinning pipeline as a reliable framework for realistic assessment and verification of GNC systems.

Figures (18)

• Figure 1: (Left) Hybrid digital and robotic twinning framework. Details of the operating interfaces for the OS, TRON, and GRAND can be found in Figures \ref{['fig:OS_testbed']}, \ref{['fig:TRON']}, \ref{['fig:ifen-trash']}, respectively. (Right) The incremental GNC V&V testing methodology used in this work.
• Figure 2: Closed loop operation of the Optical Stimulator testbed. Figure recreated from Ref. connor_os.
• Figure 3: TRON Facility. Figure recreated from Ref. park2021tron.
• Figure 4: The GRAND testbed, comprising (i) an IFEN NOVA+ 2020 multi-GNSS signal generator, (ii) the ground flight control center, and (iii) a set of NovAtel OEM628 GNSS receivers, with flight heritage, connected serially to ZYNQ7000 SoC boards equivalent to the VISORSguffanti2023autonomous flight computers. Both GNSS receiver and flight computer models possess flight heritage. The ZYNQ7000 flight computers can be used to host C-compatible GNC software test articles.
• Figure 5: Example far-range (top left) and close-range (bottom right) trajectories that target waypoints 0-7 and waypoints 8-10, respectively. The individual waypoints are shown by the red circles and the $T$-$R$ and $N$-$R$ projections are shown projected in grey.