New AI Software Greatly Increases the Readiness of Missions and Operations that Rely on the Satellite Control Network

SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The MARS real-time, tactical command and control (C2) system, developed by Stottler Henke, has become operational and now manages U.S. Space Force’s Satellite Control Network (SCN) space-ground communications. Using MARS, U.S. Space Force schedulers can create, deconflict, visualize, validate, and disseminate highly efficient satellite communications schedules much more efficiently. These capabilities enhance the SCN’s effectiveness, responsiveness to changing demands, and resilience to adverse events.

The $11B SCN comprises 19 large, globally distributed, ground-based antennas which communicate with 190 government and commercial satellites to download health and status data and upload configuration and control data. These communications ensure that the satellites maintain their orbits and operate correctly. Because satellite and ground station resources are expensive, limited, and mission critical, their efficient allocation is both difficult and essential.

Currently, highly skilled U.S. Space Force planners develop conflict-free schedules which specify when SCN antennas should communicate with each satellite to satisfy requests from the satellites’ owners. SCN scheduling is complex and time-consuming because there are many satellite communication requests, scheduling possibilities, and diverse, interacting resource and timing constraints. For example, communication is possible only when the satellite is visible to a ground station of the appropriate type, and these times depend upon each satellite’s unique orbit and the types and locations of the ground stations. In addition, when adverse events occur, such as equipment outages, communications involving the faulty ground station must be rescheduled quickly and reassigned to new ground stations to meet mission deadlines.

In order to manage growing numbers of satellites and their communications, the U.S. Space Force needed advanced automation to detect conflicts among communication tasks, resolve those conflicts, manage complex workflows, and ensure reliable distributed operation, even when a node or link experiences problems.

Because the scheduling problem is very complex, it was difficult to automate the process using conventional software technologies. The previous system first went online as an interim solution in 1992, and the government tried several times to develop a successor. However, MARS is the first system to satisfy these automation requirements and pass all the tests needed to enter operational use.

MARS embeds Stottler Henke’s Aurora™ artificial intelligence-based planning and scheduling system to implement advanced conflict detection and resolution . When a planner adds or changes a scheduled communication task, Aurora instantly detects any timing constraint violations or resource conflicts with other scheduled tasks, enabling planners to rapidly explore and evaluate possible alternate schedules. Prior systems using less sophisticated algorithms could only detect a subset of these conflicts in real time.

Once a conflict is detected, it must be resolved by rescheduling or removing other tasks in the schedule. Resolving conflicts is difficult because rescheduling tasks can introduce new conflicts which must be resolved, potentially causing a cascade of schedule changes. Aurora’s conflict resolution capability combines advanced scheduling algorithms with knowledge and skills used by expert schedulers to quickly resolve these conflicts.

MARS is currently the complete and only system used by Satellite Control Network (SCN) schedulers to develop daily SCN schedules. It is currently being rolled out to SCN Space Operations Center users and the antenna sites.” Brian Bayless, SCN Chief of Systems Integration, states, “The MARS system is now operational and used to build the fundamental satellite schedule for the US Space Force. This is the first step of three in replacing the 1992 Satellite Scheduling System and providing an industry standard platform to modernize the Space Traffic Control Mission. The complete deployment of the MARS system should be completed by the first quarter of 2025.”

Aurora Artificial Intelligence Scheduling Technology

The MARS system embeds Aurora software, the world’s leading planning and scheduling software solution that combines expert knowledge with artificial intelligence. Aurora was originally developed to help NASA tackle difficult, mission-critical planning problems—by using artificial intelligence technologies to encode and apply extensive domain knowledge and decision rules to generate more efficient schedules.

Today, Aurora manages the most demanding operations for organizations like The Boeing Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Bombardier Learjet, Spirit AeroSystems, General Dynamics Electric Boat, Korea Aerospace Industries, Alaska Airlines, Massachusetts General Hospital, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the US Air Force, US Space Force, and US Navy. For example, Boeing selected Aurora to help them manage their Boeing 787 Dreamliner™ airliner assembly operations and 60 other commercial and defense applications.

Conventional scheduling systems often support only basic timing constraints between tasks. Without a complete and accurate model of the actual constraints that schedules must satisfy, simpler systems cannot even determine whether a candidate schedule is valid. Aurora enables specification and enforcement of complex temporal and resource constraints, so it can schedule projects that other tools cannot even model.

Most other scheduling systems use simple rules to select and schedule tasks and assign resources to carry them out. These rules usually consider only limited information about the required tasks, resources, and constraints, so the generated schedules are suboptimal. Other systems rely on mathematical optimization to search systematically for the best scheduling solution. However, as the number of scheduled tasks and constraints grows, the computer time needed to solve the problem increases exponentially, making this approach impractical for managing large, complex operations. Aurora solves complex scheduling problems effectively by encoding and applying sophisticated scheduling knowledge and decision-making rules, along with complex constraints and resource requirements. Aurora’s knowledge-rich approach enables it to combine human expertise with intelligent algorithms to generate superior schedules.

Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. applies cognitive modeling, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other advanced technologies to solve problems that defy solution using traditional approaches. Stottler Henke develops intelligent software solutions that provide advanced capabilities for planning and scheduling, autonomy, knowledge management and retrieval, education and training, and machine learning and data analytics. Stottler Henke has received numerous awards for its innovative AI solutions. In 2012, at a White House ceremony, Stottler Henke was one of 18 businesses and six individuals who received the prestigious Tibbetts award for the critical role they played in research and development for the government and for their success driving innovation and creating new jobs. Email: info@stottlerhenke.com. Web: https://www.stottlerhenke.com.

Media Contact

James Ong, Stottler Henke, 1 6509312710, ong@stottlerhenke.com, http://www.stottlerhenke.com

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