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Media Contact:
David Domeshek
508.873.7068
Jim Ong
650.931.2710
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. AIR FORCE AWARDS CONTRACT TO STOTTLER HENKE TO DEVELOP
INTELLIGENT SCHEDULING SOFTWARE FOR NEXT-GENERATION SATELLITE
CLUSTERS
Automated scheduling software
will consider complex scheduling constraints and priorities
to increase
effective utilization of Air Force's space-based assets
SAN MATEO, CA, Aug. 1, 2001 -- Stottler Henke Associates,
Inc. today announced the award of a two-year $750,000
Phase II contract with the U.S. Air Force to develop intelligent
planning and scheduling software to manage next generation
satellite clusters.
For some of these applications, notably remote sensing of
the Earth or deep space, replacement of individual satellites
by clusters of close flying small satellites is expected to
have the advantages of having lower life-cycle cost, better
performance, more adaptability to changing mission goals,
and less susceptibility to the loss of individual satellites.
Currently no such satellite clusters are flying, though the
U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, for example, is considering
for its TechSat 21 program to set up a constellation of 35
low-orbit "virtual" satellites (plus 5 spares), in which each
virtual satellite would in practice be a cluster of 8 "micro"
satellites flying within 250 meters of each other.
Autonomous, distributed onboard management of the satellites
and their payloads would reduce an almost impossible demand
on ground-based resources to keep satellites in a cluster
working reliably in concert to achieve their mission goals.
Stottler Henke has initiated an innovative project on behalf of the
U.S. Air Force to thoroughly understand the design requirements
for a management system to control satellites within a cluster,
and clusters within a constellation; to design an agent-based
software architecture based on these requirements; and to
prove the feasibility of its approach through the development
of prototype software. Agent technology is expected to provide
the best approach for controlling physically distributed resources
such as satellites, to deal with such events as the insertion
and removal of satellites from a cluster, and anomalous behavior
by individual satellites. Multiple agents working together
will demonstrate emergent behavior, which will need to be
tested by role-playing to ensure that it is the desired behavior.
Founded in 1988, Stottler Henke Associates, Inc.
applies artificial intelligence and other advanced software technologies
to solve problems that defy solution using traditional approaches.
The company delivers intelligent software solutions for education and training,
planning and scheduling, knowledge management and discovery, decision support,
and software development. Stottler Henke's clients include manufacturers,
retailers, educational media companies and government agencies.
Web: http://www.stottlerhenke.com.
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