Transcript Slide 1

SpaceDrone: Bringing Spacecraft
Flight Software Closer to Earth
2014-12-18
Nathaniel Parsons
David Edell
Bill Van Besien
Skye Basir
Mark Reid
Christopher Krupiarz
SpaceDrone: Project Goals
 Demonstrate the versatility of APL’s CORE space flight software
architecture via deployment on a commercial off-the-shelf UAV
platform
 Enable a low-cost, extensible platform for maturing
breakthrough space technologies and algorithms
 Capture the process for rapid development, software
demonstration, projects
 Design and execute within 10 weeks
SpaceDrone: Benefits and Impacts
 Provide low-cost, flight-like environment for the development
and evaluation of space flight technologies or algorithms
 Serve as a platform to raise TRL of novel technologies
 Build awareness of APL CORE flight software as mature and
versatile framework suitable for a wide range of applications in
and out of space
 Enhance technology demonstrations to sponsors
SpaceDrone: Quadcopter Overview
 Parrot AR.Drone 2.0
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HD Camera, 720p
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3 axis gyroscope
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3 axis accelerometer
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3 axis magnetometer
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4 brushless inrunner motors
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(Optional) GPS USB recorder
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Pressure sensor/Ultrasound sensors for altitude measurement
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60 FPS vertical QVGA camera for ground speed measurement
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WiFi bgn access point
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Android/iOS control app
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UDP Commanding/Telemetry API
– Commands: take off, land, move forward, rotate, etc
SpaceDrone: Comparison to Spacecraft
Spacecraft (Leon3 UT699)
SpaceDrone (RaspberryPi)
66 MHz SPARC Processor
700 MHz ARM Processor
32MB RAM
512MB RAM
RTEMS or VxWorks Real-Time OS Linux (Real-time extensions available)
RTEMS available
L-3 InControl Ground System
µMoc/Web-MOPS Ultra-lightweight
ground system
cFE, PSP, OSAL, and CORE APL
FSW Applications
cFE, PSP, OSAL, and CORE APL
FSW Applications
SpaceDrone: Design & Assembly
 Challenge: Integrate Raspberry Pi and battery onto airframe
while maintaining stable flight
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Allow secure attachment of Pi, power source
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Save weight
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Allow stable flight
SpaceDrone: CORE FSW Overview
APL CORE Flight Software - collection of reusable applications
and libraries
 Used for satellite data systems and instruments, can be useful
on any embedded system
 Core Flight Executive (cFE) - portable, platform independent
embedded system framework developed by NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center
 APL-Core application software is flying on Van Allen Probes, will
fly on Solar Probe Plus, and leverages software flown on
MESSENGER, New Horizons, and STEREO
 Supported platforms
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RAD-750
Leon3
ARM
x86
x86_64
SpaceDrone: Software Diagram
SpaceDrone: New Flight Software App
 Drone Interface, “DI”
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Integrates seamlessly into CORE
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Provides high-level interface to quadcopter avionics
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Dramatically reduces network load of commanding data (enable
drone ops on resource constrained links)
 Easy integration with existing CORE suite
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Autonomy and Fault Management Software
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Guidance, Navigation, and Control
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Commanding infrastructure
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Telemetry output, recording, playback
SpaceDrone: µMOC and Web-MOPS
 µMOC (“micro-MOC”)
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Generic, raw telemetry
and command utility
Reused from previous
projects, with
improvements
 Web-MOPS
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Graphical front-end
yielding animated
telemetry charts and a
commanding interface
Intended to mimic APL’s
mission operations
environment
Enables operations of
the drone in a way that is
consistent with APL’s
approach toward space
mission operations
SpaceDrone: Results
 Current system functionality
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Real-time commanding and control of commercial quadcopter
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Real-time and historical telemetry from all systems and sensors
 Available functionality with entire CORE suite and configuration
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Autonomous, rule-macro commanding
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Relative and absolute time tag commanding
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File-based telemetry recording and CFDP-based playback
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System configuration via memory objects
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CPU and memory monitoring
 SpaceDrone is ready to be used as a platform for future
developments in flight software