EXECUTIVE MODULAR CONTROL OF HETEROGENEOUS SPACECRAFT COMPONENTS AND AGENTS

摘要

Future lunar and Mars exploration missions will incorporate legacy software and hardware components from the then-existing state of the art. Integrating the command, control, and data from complex networks of heterogeneous instruments, components, agents and human operators requires a modular, plug-and-play architecture. One example of such an approach has been developed for subsurface prototype missions, with multiple clients, servers, and platform support provided by a publish/subscribe architecture that combines rover-developed executive software control with a middleware layer based on a CORBA subset. This architecture has been demonstrated in several successful field tests (automated drilling tests in Spain, the US and Arctic Canada) in 2005-2006 to support the dynamic addition of and deactivation of spacecraft platform components without requiring recoding or patching.