ACM TechNews

Space Age Engineers to Verify Control Software for Future Robotic Inter-Planetary Missions

University of Leicester (08/20/08)

The University of Leicester will help develop new verification and validation techniques for next-generation satellite systems. Researchers from Leicester's Control and Instrumentation Research Group are involved in an international consortium that is working to improve mission-critical control software for the rendezvous of groups of satellites. The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding the two-year project. "Future ESA missions, like the autonomous robotic satellites which will collect and return samples from the surface of Mars, require control systems involving complex requirements, system architectures, software algorithms, and hardware implementations," says University of Leicester senior lecturer Declan Bates. "It is essential to show that the control system is sufficiently robust to ensure the desired safety levels under a large number of adverse and unforeseen conditions." Engineers from the Spain's GMV, Canada's NGC Aerospace, and the University of Oxford are also involved in the project.

http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2008/08/
nparticle.2008-08-20.3416206696

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