A Goal-Oriented Autonomous Controller for Space Exploration

Abstract

The Goal-Oriented Autonomous Controller (GOAC) is the envisaged result of a multi-institutional effort within the on-going Autonomous Controller R&D activity funded by ESA ESTEC. The objective of this effort is to design, build and test a viable on-board controller to demonstrate key concepts in fully autonomous operations for ESA missions. This three-layer architecture is an integrative effort to bring together four mature technologies; for a functional layer, a verification and validation system, a planning engine and a controller framework for planning and execution which uses the sense-plan-act paradigm for goal oriented autonomy. GOAC as a result will generate plans in situ, deterministically dispatch activities for execution, and recover from off-nominal conditions