The Twins4Space project develops a decentralized software platform for orchestrating Digital Twins and Services, enabling highly fault-tolerant and reconfigurable space systems. The platform’s distributed architecture allows Digital Twins and Services to communicate dynamically, implementing higher-level functions like attitude control while maintaining system stability during component failures.
Compared to traditional monolithic approaches, this architecture offers key advantages:
- Enhanced fault tolerance through autonomous system reconfiguration
- Dynamic reconfiguration of system functions at runtime
- Seamless in-orbit upgrades and maintenance
- Robust operation during partial system failures
- Use of commercial off-the-shelf hardware through fault-tolerant software design
While distributing software across multiple computing nodes provides these benefits, it also introduces unique coordination challenges. The project explores these tradeoffs using a space-representative lab demonstrator comprising four prototypical satellite modules as well as a fully fledged virtual satellite, validating the platform’s reconfiguration capabilities and fault tolerance mechanisms.
The concept’s applications extend beyond space systems to terrestrial use cases like robotics and industrial control systems, demonstrating its broad potential for distributed system management.
Partners:
- RIF Institut für Forschung und Transfer e.V.
- Lehrstuhl für Informatik VIII – Informationstechnik für Luft und Raumfahrt, Universität Würzburg
This project receives funding from the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK) under grant number 50RA2103.
