Space Debris Removal using Nano-Satellites controlled by Low-Power Autonomous Agents

2026-01-01

arXiv.org

AI Summary

This study addresses the growing threat posed by orbital debris to spacecraft safety by proposing a collaborative space debris removal approach using a swarm of nanosatellites equipped with low-power autonomous agents. For the first time, lightweight intelligent agents are deployed on resource-constrained nanosatellite platforms to enable autonomous debris identification and safe deorbiting. The system employs a wireless microcontroller-based architecture optimized for high energy efficiency and is validated through a dedicated experimental testbed. Results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly reduces power consumption while maintaining mission effectiveness, offering a scalable and energy-efficient technological pathway for future active debris removal missions.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multi-Robot Systems
• Multiagent Systems: Teamwork
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Activity and Plan Recognition

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

Space debris is an ever-increasing problem in space travel. There are already many old, no longer functional spacecraft and debris orbiting the earth, which endanger both the safe operation of satellites and space travel. Small nano-satellite swarms can address this problem by autonomously de-orbiting debris safely into the Earth's atmosphere. This work builds on the recent advances of autonomous agents deployed in resource-constrained platforms and shows a first simplified approach how such intelligent and autonomous nano-satellite swarms can be realized. We implement our autonomous agent software on wireless microcontrollers and perform experiments on a specialized test-bed to show the feasibility and overall energy efficiency of our approach.

Problem

• Space Debris
• Nano-Satellites
• Autonomous Agents
• Debris Removal
• Orbital Safety

Innovation

• nano-satellite swarms
• autonomous agents
• space debris removal
• low-power embedded systems
• de-orbiting