Close-Proximity Satellite Operations through Deep Reinforcement Learning and Terrestrial Testing Environments

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lei, Henry, Aurand, Joshua, Lippay, Zachary S., Phillips, Sean
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Lei, Henry
Aurand, Joshua
Lippay, Zachary S.
Phillips, Sean
author_facet Lei, Henry
Aurand, Joshua
Lippay, Zachary S.
Phillips, Sean
contents With the increasingly congested and contested space environment, safe and effective satellite operation has become increasingly challenging. As a result, there is growing interest in autonomous satellite capabilities, with common machine learning techniques gaining attention for their potential to address complex decision-making in the space domain. However, the "black-box" nature of many of these methods results in difficulty understanding the model's input/output relationship and more specifically its sensitivity to environmental disturbances, sensor noise, and control intervention. This paper explores the use of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) for satellite control in multi-agent inspection tasks. The Local Intelligent Network of Collaborative Satellites (LINCS) Lab is used to test the performance of these control algorithms across different environments, from simulations to real-world quadrotor UAV hardware, with a particular focus on understanding their behavior and potential degradation in performance when deployed beyond the training environment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_20554
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Close-Proximity Satellite Operations through Deep Reinforcement Learning and Terrestrial Testing Environments
Lei, Henry
Aurand, Joshua
Lippay, Zachary S.
Phillips, Sean
Robotics
Systems and Control
93-05
With the increasingly congested and contested space environment, safe and effective satellite operation has become increasingly challenging. As a result, there is growing interest in autonomous satellite capabilities, with common machine learning techniques gaining attention for their potential to address complex decision-making in the space domain. However, the "black-box" nature of many of these methods results in difficulty understanding the model's input/output relationship and more specifically its sensitivity to environmental disturbances, sensor noise, and control intervention. This paper explores the use of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) for satellite control in multi-agent inspection tasks. The Local Intelligent Network of Collaborative Satellites (LINCS) Lab is used to test the performance of these control algorithms across different environments, from simulations to real-world quadrotor UAV hardware, with a particular focus on understanding their behavior and potential degradation in performance when deployed beyond the training environment.
title Close-Proximity Satellite Operations through Deep Reinforcement Learning and Terrestrial Testing Environments
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
93-05
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.20554