Intelligence and Autonomy in the Sat4EO+ Satellite

The responsiveness of an Earth observation (EO) service, in terms of the time from the initiation of satellite tasking after an End User request is accepted, until the availability of the Earth Observation product to the End User, is a key metric in many applications, such as security, disaster monitoring and nowcasting, and more generally in enhanced-NRT services. Elecnor DEIMOS is currently developing its next proprietary Very-High Resolution (VHR) small satellite [1][2], Sat4EO+, to meet current and upcoming market needs for Earth Observation products derived from a sub-meter optical imaging capability. Sat4EO+ is an agile low-cost ~200kg VNIR optical satellite, providing ~50cm native VHR imaging. In Sat4EO+, responsiveness has been included as a key performance parameter, with a requirement that the Sat4EO+ service shall provide responsiveness down to 10 minutes, globally, for high-priority products. This poster describes the approach employed by DEIMOS to achieve this responsiveness requirement below 10 minutes globally in the Sat4EO+ satellite. The responsive service is based on several key capabilities for small satellites, which, when employed in combination, lead to an intelligent satellite, with increased autonomy, that provides for an innovative service to the End User. These capabilities are: rapid global tasking, exploiting a permanent communications link to the Sat4EO+ satellite through a global high-rate geo-relay link; re-configurable data handling on-board the satellite, to manage both high and standard priority products and their transfer to the End User; on-board processing, through DEIMOS' propriety Insight4EO HW/SW turnkey product embedding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, allowing for the generation of high-priority Earth observation products on-board the satellite and their direct transfer to the End User globally with very low latency (real-time), exploiting the global communications link and the relative small size of such products; autonomous task management on-board the satellite, to manage autonomously high and standard priority tasks, and perform tasks such as data prioritisation, thus maximising the overall duty cycle of the satellite and the service performance and ROI.