Multiple Agent-Based Autonomy for Satellite Constellations

There is an increasing desire to use constellations of autonomous spacecraft working together to accomplish complex mission objectives. Multiple, highly autonomous, satellite systems are envisioned because they are capable of higher performance, lower cost, better fault tolerance, reconfigurability and upgradability. This paper presents an architecture and multi-agent design and simulation environment that will enable agent-based multi-satellite systems to fulfill their complex mission objectives, termed TeamAgent TM. Its application is shown for TechSat21, a U.S. Air Force mission designed to explore the benefits of distributed satellite systems. Required spacecraft functions, software agents, and multi-agent organisations are described for the TechSat21 mission, as well as their implementation. Agent-based simulations of TechSat21 case studies show the autonomous operation and how TeamAgent can be used to evaluate and compare multi agent-based organisations.