Description
TO: Yuri Yushtein/Software Systems Division
For unmanned space exploration, spacecraft rely on automation and robotics technologies to utilise autonomy and autonomic computing principles to safeguard the spacecraft, address the operations issues, or maximise the science return. However, it appears that the design and implementation of autonomous spacecraft is an extremely challenging task. The problem stems from the very nature of such systems where features like environment monitoring and self-monitoring allow awareness capabilities to drive the system behaviour. The first and one of the biggest challenges in the design and implementation of such systems is how to handle requirements specifically related to the autonomy of a system. Within the mandate of the MTOBSE Project, we developed an approach to Autonomy Requirements Engineering where system goals are merged with special generic autonomy requirements. The approach helps engineers to identify and record the autonomy requirements for autonomous spacecraft in the form of special self-* objectives and other assistive requirements, capturing alternative objectives the system may pursue in the presence of factors threatening the achievement of the initial system goals. As a proof-of-concept case study, we applied the approach to capture the autonomy requirements for ESA’s BepiColombo Mission to Mercury.
Speaker
Mr
Vassev Emil
(Lero)
