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Space Debris Removal using Nano-Satellites controlled by Low-Power Autonomous Agents

Dennis Christmann, Juan F. Gutierrez, Sthiti Padhi, Patrick Plörer, Aditya Takur, Simona Silvestri, Andres Gomez

TL;DR

The paper addresses space debris by proposing a swarm‑scale, energy‑constrained solution using nano‑satellites governed by low‑power autonomous agents. It implements a two‑agent BDI system on microcontrollers with OpenThread/CoAP communication and demonstrates operation on the ELISSA air‑bearing test‑bed, with the agents controlling nanoscopic free‑flyer maneuvers without relying on external motion capture or mission control. The study provides quantitative energy measurements for inter‑agent communications and shows a 21.2 ms synchronization precision during debris‑pushing maneuvers, establishing feasibility and efficiency of onboard autonomous coordination. This work lays groundwork for scalable, autonomous space‑debris removal using swarms of resource‑limited satellites and standard IoT protocols, paving the way for more complex maneuvers and localization‑aware control in future deployments.

Abstract

Space debris is an ever-increasing problem in space travel. There are already many old, no longer functional spacecraft and debris orbiting the earth, which endanger both the safe operation of satellites and space travel. Small nano-satellite swarms can address this problem by autonomously de-orbiting debris safely into the Earth's atmosphere. This work builds on the recent advances of autonomous agents deployed in resource-constrained platforms and shows a first simplified approach how such intelligent and autonomous nano-satellite swarms can be realized. We implement our autonomous agent software on wireless microcontrollers and perform experiments on a specialized test-bed to show the feasibility and overall energy efficiency of our approach.

Space Debris Removal using Nano-Satellites controlled by Low-Power Autonomous Agents

TL;DR

The paper addresses space debris by proposing a swarm‑scale, energy‑constrained solution using nano‑satellites governed by low‑power autonomous agents. It implements a two‑agent BDI system on microcontrollers with OpenThread/CoAP communication and demonstrates operation on the ELISSA air‑bearing test‑bed, with the agents controlling nanoscopic free‑flyer maneuvers without relying on external motion capture or mission control. The study provides quantitative energy measurements for inter‑agent communications and shows a 21.2 ms synchronization precision during debris‑pushing maneuvers, establishing feasibility and efficiency of onboard autonomous coordination. This work lays groundwork for scalable, autonomous space‑debris removal using swarms of resource‑limited satellites and standard IoT protocols, paving the way for more complex maneuvers and localization‑aware control in future deployments.

Abstract

Space debris is an ever-increasing problem in space travel. There are already many old, no longer functional spacecraft and debris orbiting the earth, which endanger both the safe operation of satellites and space travel. Small nano-satellite swarms can address this problem by autonomously de-orbiting debris safely into the Earth's atmosphere. This work builds on the recent advances of autonomous agents deployed in resource-constrained platforms and shows a first simplified approach how such intelligent and autonomous nano-satellite swarms can be realized. We implement our autonomous agent software on wireless microcontrollers and perform experiments on a specialized test-bed to show the feasibility and overall energy efficiency of our approach.
Paper Structure (3 sections, 5 figures)

This paper contains 3 sections, 5 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. System Overview
  3. Demonstration

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Simplified space-debris removal application. A base station broadcasts a mission to the mothership server. The two low-power autonomous agents synchronize via with server to deorbit debris by pushing it synchronously.
  • Figure 2: The ELISSA test-bed allows satellite mockups, called Free-Flyers (FF), to float on a cushion of air. Our autonomous agents perform the maneuvers.
  • Figure 3: The Free-Flyer (FF) floats on the ELISSA testbed. The software onboard implements the autonomous agents, which communicate wirelessly.
  • Figure 4: Timing diagram for agent-to-agent synchronization using CoAP. Base station reports a mission to the mothership, which acts as a server. Once the master agent receives the mission, the agent schedules it for the future and sends a message to slave agent with the mission information.
  • Figure 5: Filtered current measurement from master agent before, during and after mission. Lower plots show CoAP requests and the synchronized agent action.