As the ESA Technology Broker for the UK, we have been presented with technologies from across industry that have the potential for spin-in to the space sector. One such technology is a semi-attritable, edge physical AI orchestration sub-system that can be used to centralise reasoning and coordinate heterogeneous, third-party robotic platforms, transforming them into a unified team.
Originally created with the defence industry in mind, this system allows low cost, simpler platforms to work together and solve complex problems even in communication-denied or resource-constrained environments – opening up potential applications for the space industry.
How Does It Work?
Edge technology (or edge computing) is a decentralised framework that is capable of processing data near it source rather than via a distant, centralised cloud. Able to work with internet-enabled devices, sensors or local servers, this technology reduces latency, reduces bandwidth costs and improves operational speed to enable real-time decision-making.
Acting as a ‘collective brain,’ the system is an on-board physical AI device that centralises superior sensing, reasoning, and computing, while offloading complex tasks from downstream robots. The system is built around four key components:
- Gateway: A hardware-agnostic ingestion layer that interfaces with diverse, third-party sensors (e.g., radars, electro-optical, acoustic, radio frequency) via open application programming interfaces (APIs)
- Configuration and Services: A core management module that handles system services, network management, and connectivity for all integrated assets and also serves as the human-machine interface
- Modular AI Applications: A suite of containerised AI applications that run on-device, processing sensor data in real-time. These modules perform specific tasks and are managed by the Coordinator.
- Team Mission Control (Coordinator): The central "collective brain" of the system. The Coordinator fuses the outputs from the various AI applications, maintains a unified real-time operating picture, and performs the high-level reasoning. It translates this fused data into commands and provides mission control for the downstream robotic platforms (e.g., Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS), Small Reconnaissance Robots (SRR), or other ground vehicles)
By centralising complex AI reasoning and perception tasks onto a single, hardened edge device, this system offloads the computational burden, allowing the connected sensors and downstream robots to be simpler, more specialised, and operate with constrained on-board resources. The Gateway and APIs ensure a "plug and play" capability, enabling rapid integration of new hardware. The system is also designed to support human-in-the-loop (HITL) control, featuring a direct override mechanism for an operator to take first person view (FPV) control of any single robot.
Benefits
This system provides a number of potential benefits for users by turning a group of disconnected, individual robotic assets into a unified group. Furthermore, this is achieved even in comms-denied environments and with heterogeneous, multi-vendor hardware. This capability delivers potential cost savings by avoiding the need for specific high-capability systems and instead repurposing teams of simpler, resource-constrained platforms. This is achieved through the use of a hierarchical decision-making architecture that intelligently blends the deterministic, verifiable nature of symbolic reasoning with the adaptability of learned, probabilistic models.
These different capabilities and advantages certainly have a number of potential applications for the space sector for both orbital and on-planet purposes.
Find Out More:
With a number of potential space sector applications available for this system, you can find out more about this technology here: https://www.esa-technology-broker.co.uk/technologies/edge-ai-orchestrator-for-multi-robot-teams
If you would like to explore this technology further for potential applications, please get in touch with us by emailing contactus@esa-technology-broker.co.uk.