Development and Validation of an Enhanced Hardware Testbed for Distributed Task Allocation in Collaborative Satellite Systems

Institut

Lehrstuhl für Spacecraft Systems (TUM-ED)

Typ

Bachelorarbeit / Semesterarbeit /

Inhalt

experimentell / konstruktiv /  

Beschreibung

[This project is primarily conceived as an engineering project; however, depending on the selected application scope, it can also be adapted as a bachelor's thesis or semester thesis.]

This engineering project builds upon the previously developed collaborative spacecraft operations test setup, which demonstrated a hardware network of satellite nodes capable of coordinating object detection tasks through distributed communication and reward-based decision mechanisms.

Modern satellite missions increasingly rely on constellations and distributed spacecraft architectures rather than single highly capable platforms. Efficient onboard task allocation among satellites with heterogeneous capabilities is therefore a key challenge, particularly when considering different levels of system centralization ranging from fully distributed decision-making to partially centralized coordination schemes.

The objective of this project is to further develop and improve the existing hardware setup to enable experimental validation of task allocation strategies in distributed satellite systems. The enhanced testbed will allow configurable architectures representing different levels of centralization, including centralized coordinator nodes, hierarchical coordination, and fully distributed bidding-based approaches.

The platform will be used to experimentally validate task allocation analyses and algorithms developed within ongoing research activities, including those conducted by the supervisory team. By enabling hardware-in-the-loop experimentation, the project aims to bridge the gap between simulation-based analysis and realistic distributed spacecraft operations.

The improved system will support heterogeneous satellite nodes with different simulated capabilities such as processing performance, communication latency, available power, or sensor quality. Experimental campaigns will evaluate system robustness, scalability, communication overhead, and task execution efficiency under different operational scenarios.

Voraussetzungen

Recommended Background (not mandatory):

• Programming experience (Python preferred).
• Basic knowledge of Linux environments.
• Interest in spacecraft systems, embedded hardware, or distributed systems.
• Motivation for experimental and hardware-oriented work.

Möglicher Beginn

sofort

Kontakt

Vincenzo Messina
Tel.: +49 89 289 55752
vincenzo.messinatum.de

Ausschreibung