Title: Model Predictive Control Architecture for Optimizing Earth Science Data Collection (PCAES) – Computational Challenges and Initial Test Results
Presenting Author: Mike Lieber
Organization: Ball Aerospace
Co-Author(s): Carl Weimer, Reuben Rohrschneider, Lyle Ruppert

Abstract:
The increasing importance of maneuverable and distributed space-based sensor systems has led to exciting developments in large-scale data extraction and synthesis of complex and enhanced data products. However, beyond spacecraft attitude control system retargeting, the ability to optimize data collection real-time at the sensor level is very limited and constrains the use of platforms with coordinated control and instruments with multiple degrees of freedom. Further work is needed on the autonomous lower level software to enable optimized real-time data collection to react to the changing scene. In an earlier presentation, the conceptual framework was presented for optimizing Earth Science data collection from space using an architecture based upon Model Predictive Control (MPC). MPC is ideal framework for autonomous, real-time control of complex systems because it optimizes with respect to multiple goals and constraints at every time step. Because of this proven capability, it is often the starting point for software architecture design for many terrestrial applications including autonomous cars, robotic vision systems and it has been proposed for control of distributed spacecraft. In this presentation we further expound upon the computational challenges, discuss the hierarchical nature of the architecture with slow and fast control loops, and present some results of laboratory testing and software validation for a multi-beam lidar-based remote sensing platform. The targeted application, a type of adaptive lidar called Electronically Steerable Flash Lidar (ESFL), can generate tens to a hundred individually steerable laser beamlets and when combined with other sensors pose a large real-time optimization problem well suited to the MPC architecture.