Autonomous Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, & Docking (RPOD) Testbed

As space assets grow in strategic and commercial value, operators need reliable ways to monitor, approach, inspect, and protect them. Nations and commercial operators are deploying maneuverable inspector spacecraft and large constellations for space domain awareness and defensive operations. Each trend creates the same technical need: a spacecraft that can autonomously characterize a nearby object and decide whether to approach, hold, or evade.

This project focuses on development of a low-cost, ground-based testbed for autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD). The testbed focuses on space domain awareness: characterizing potential orbital threats and executing protective approach, inspection, and evasion maneuvers. The testbed pairs caster-based vehicles tracked by motion capture with simulation. This lets us test autonomy and sensing algorithms repeatedly and cheaply before building higher-fidelity hardware. Developing and validating a ground testbed for RPOD algorithms lets us repeat approach, tracking, and evasion trials at low cost and low risk. It also lets us change hardware as the design matures instead of committing early to one propulsion or structural system. A close approach can read as inspection or as a threat depending on intent and context, so our threat-characterization logic must state its assumptions explicitly.