New Paradigm for Spacecraft Control and Design Technologies

拟议的研究“航天器控制和设计的新范式”将侧重于开发下一代低成本、自主和智能的航天器。这项研究将在四个主要领域进行：1)利用环境力进行航天器控制，2)用于航天器的鲁棒控制或容错控制方法，3)用于航天器控制的新型执行器，以及4)航天器设计、小型化和硬件创新。第一个目标涉及有效地利用环境力量进行航天器控制(简单地称为“无推进剂航天器控制”)，而第二个目标侧重于故障诊断、预测和控制，以便为一批航天器开发智能控制器。此外，它还专注于航天器健康管理的大数据分析。另一方面，第三个目标涉及开发用于航天器控制的新型致动器，包括流体环、系绳和微机械(压电)。第四个目标涉及航天器设计，重点是超小型卫星，如阿托萨特卫星(1-10g)。最后，开发的算法将被集成到航天器硬件中，并在库马尔博士的空间系统动力学和控制实验室提供的高保真系统模型和航天器编队平台上进行测试。拟议的研究将导致为未来的空间任务开发智能高性能航天器，并在系统建模和仿真、大数据分析、传感器、执行器、软件开发和硬件设计等要求最苛刻的领域培训大量HQP(6名博士生、9名MASC学生和4名本科生研究助理)。

The proposed research "New Paradigm for Spacecraft Control and Design" will focus on developing next generation of low cost, autonomous and intelligent spacecraft. The research will be conducted under four main areas: 1) Harnessing Environmental Forces for Spacecraft Control, 2) Robust Control or Fault Tolerant Control Methodologies for Spacecraft, 3) Novel Actuators for Spacecraft Control, and 4) Spacecraft Design, Miniaturization and Hardware Innovation. The first objective involves harnessing environmental forces efficiently for spacecraft control (simple called "Propellant-less Spacecraft Control") while the second objective focuses on fault diagnosis, prognosis and control to develop intelligent controllers for a swarm of spacecraft. In addition, it also focuses on big data analytics for spacecraft health management. On the other hand, the third objective involves the development of novel actuators for spacecraft control including fluid rings, tethers and MEMS (piezoelectric). The fourth objective involves spacecraft design with a focus on ultra small satellites, such as attosatellites (1 - 10g). Finally, the developed algorithms will be integrated into spacecraft hardware and tested on high-fidelity system models and spacecraft formation platforms available in Dr. Kumar's Space Systems Dynamics and Control laboratory. The proposed research will lead to the development of intelligent high performance spacecraft for future space missions as well as training of a large number of HQPs (6 PhD students, 9 MASc students, and 4 Undergraduate research assistants) in the most demanding areas of system modelling and simulation, big data analytics, sensors, actuators, software development, and hardware design.