Comparison of Goal-Based Operations and Command Sequencing

Abstract

In robotic space missions the purpose of any operat ions paradigm is to achieve specific objectives while protecting the health of the space vehicle(s). Unfortunately, in the dominant paradigm of command sequencing, the representation of such objectives, health constraints and other dependencies is left behind in the ground -based activity planning process and never carried into uplinked products where it can s upport context-specific status monitoring, resource allocation, fault protection, and general automation on the spacecraft. In contrast, in the paradigm of goal-based operations, operational objectives are everpresent, from the beginning of activity planning al l the way to execution on a space vehicle. This paper examines the change in operations perspective from command sequencing to goal-based operations, with particular emphasis on the uplinked product—termed a goal network —and the design of goal elaborators needed to generate it.