PhD Opportunities at SET
PhD opportunities within the Space and Exploration Technology group are in the Systems, Power & Energy and Autonomous Systems and Connectivity Research Divisions. If you are interested in any of these projects, you should email the prospective supervisor for discussing your intentions.
The James Watt School of Engineering has a limited number of scholarships to offer to excellent candidates, application shall be discussed with the potential supervisor. A call for scholarship applications is open, with deadline 31 May 2024.
See currently-available opportunities of Scholarships on our our Postgraduate Research.
PhD topics
Disassembly and reconfiguration of rubble pile asteroids
Supervisors
Funding
Currently unfunded. Please consult the Postgraduate Research section for information on applying for support.
Description
Asteroids offer to provide material resources to support a range of future space ventures, spanning metals for in-orbit manufacturing and water for in-situ production of propellant. Our prior studies have considered the dynamics of asteroid disassembly using rotational self-energy.
This project will investigate strategies to disassemble rubble pile asteroids using an N-body simulation of the physics of the rubble pile. Disassembly may be required for resource processing, or to reconfigure material for manufacturing structures such as habitats. Such strategies will include free-flying units which remove masses in a serial or parallel fashion, while the rubble pile relaxes into a new minimum energy state after each mass is removed.
Key research questions include:
- What are the physical limitations on the disassembly of rubble pile asteroids given their gravitational binding energy?
- What strategies can be devised for disassembly using either single or multiple free-flying robotic platforms operating serially or in parallel?
- Can the dynamics of binary asteroids be leveraged to initiate and engineer the flow of material between asteroids?
The project will combine mathematical modelling and simulation to investigate these research questions. Candidates should therefore have a strong aptitude for and interest in mathematical modelling and simulation. The project will be embedded within a large research group pursuing a programme of novel research on emerging space technologies.
Orbit and attitude control of femtospacecraft
Supervisors
Funding
Currently unfunded. Please consult the Postgraduate Research section for information on applying for support.
Description
Femtospacecraft offer to deliver a broad range of new mission applications spanning space physics, Earth remote sensing and planetary science. A key issue will be the development of strategies to actively control both the orbit and attitude of such small devices.
This project will investigate novel obit and attitude control strategies based on our Mercury 3.5 x 3.5 cm femtospacecraft. The platform comprises a microcontroller with integrated communications, MEMs attitude sensing and 3-axis magnetic actuation. Key research questions include:
- What attitude control laws are suitable for resource-limited femtosatellite? This task will include both modelling, simulation and laboratory experiments
- What is the trade-off between energy/volume used and performance of the attitude control system?
- How can the orbit of a resource-limited femtosatellite be actively controlled and how can the physics of the space environment be leveraged for such tasks?
- How can spatial patterns be formed in swarms of large numbers of such devices to enable new applications of femtosatellite technology?
The project will combine mathematical modelling, simulation and some laboratory-scale testing using an air-bearing and Helmholtz cage to investigate these research questions. Candidates should have strong aptitude in mathematical modelling and simulation and an interest in pursuing laboratory experimentation. The project will be embedded within a large research group pursuing a programme of novel research on emerging space technologies.
Quantum computing for space trajectory design and optimisation
Supervisors
Funding
Currently unfunded. Please consult the Postgraduate Research section for information on applying for support.
Description
Quantum computing one of the most important emerging technologies: a step change in our ability to solve difficult problems, in the same way conventional computers have been in the sixties. Conventional computers rely on bits, which can carry on/off information; quantum computers use quantum bits, or “qubits”, which can represent several states at once, exploiting the superposition effect of quantum theory. This allows them to work much faster than conventional computers, and adding more qubits make quantum computers exponentially faster, allowing them to solve problems that are so difficult that are out of reach for ordinary calculators.
In the space mission design, the trajectory design problem is a difficult one, even more so when multiple bodies and/or targets have to be selected from a set (e.g. multiple planetary swing-bys, multiple moon or asteroid tours, multiple satellite servicing and/or disposal): this creates a mixed combinatorial-continuous problem, where the combinatorial part is (broadly speaking) a variant of the classic Travelling Salesperson Problem (TSP), to select the sequence of bodies/targets, and in order to evaluate each sequence, a continuous optimisation sub-problem is to be solved. Quantum computing has the potential to dramatically improve the solution of this problem, my exploiting the superimposition of multiple possible paths at once.
As progress is being made into the hardware to make functional quantum computers, scaling up the number of qubits, this PhD will explore the formulation and solution of space mission design problems through a quantum computing. We aim to answer the following research questions:
- What quantum computing framework(s) can be used for space mission trajectory design?
- How can we leverage on and inject quantum computing to the space mission trajectory design problem, particularly when multiple bodies/targets are involved?
- How can trajectory design problems be encoded through a quantum algorithm?
- To what extent a full trajectory design problem can be implemented as (and take benefit from) a quantum algorithm?
Ultimately, we will assess to what extent, injecting quantum computing into the optimisation problem, we obtain a quantum advantage, both in terms of optimality of solution, and computational cost, for this specific application (narrow advantage).
The ideal candidate will have a background in computing science or similar discipline, with a strong interest in space technology and exploration, or vice-versa a background in space trajectory design with strong interest in computing science and programming.
In-orbit assembly: Robust autonomous methods for controlling robot manipulators in space
Supervisors
Dr Gerardo Aragon Camarasa (School of Computing Science)
Funding
Currently unfunded. Please consult the Postgraduate Research section for information on applying for support.
Description
With the current push towards space for both private and government organizations, and the recent increase on initiatives to the industrialization of space, there will be an important need for humans to be supported by robotic systems. Understanding and mastering the unique properties that will intervene in the robot behaviour is essential to offer a fully autonomous robotic system which will be expected to work with no human intervention while being robust, accurate and responsive.
The work will consider the different advantages of both traditional and AI-based control methodologies to support the development of a vision-based control system that is able to control a robot manipulator within the space environment during in-orbit assembly tasks. The expected outcome of this work will be a simulation environment of a suitable setup and a practical real-life implementation.
This project will engage with recent research studies on the field on autonomous robotics, building in-orbit structures, satellite assembly and support studies on manufacturing in space. This project can also engage with users beyond space, with advanced manufacturing research being a potential area to explore.
Background in either control engineering mechatronics, computing science, and/or space engineering is highly recommended. In order to be eligible to apply for the School of Engineering Scholarship, an excellent CV is required.
RESEARCH LINES
This project explores the following lines of research:
- Robotic arms for manufacturing in space
This line of research focuses on the analysis of the dynamics, kinematics, and grasping methodologies of the robotic arms while on orbit. This addresses problems related to autonomous robotics, target capture strategy, tackling a moving orbiting object, mathematical approach to the robotic arm dynamics, and contact forces. In addition, the major physical interactions while executing tasks on orbit such as building in-orbit structures, satellite assembly, and space manufacturing, will be considered.
- Approaches for controlling robotic manipulators in space
This line of research focuses on the analysis and exploration of traditional and AI-based control methodologies, intelligent control algorithms, and an integrated vision-based control system. This addresses problems related to the vision system embedded in the robot, environment simulation, and parameters such as speed, torque, vibration, and attitude disturbance.
Optimisation of inter-satellite communications
Supervisors
Funding
Currently unfunded. Please consult the Postgraduate Research section for information on applying for support.
Description
Intersatellite links (ISLs) are telecommunication routes between different satellites which allow a swarm or constellation of satellites (or agents) to effectively become a network of relay nodes. ISLs can be used to share data amongst different nodes of a network; one possible aim is to maximise the bandwidth between two specific agents in the network, or between an agent and an external entity (e.g. a ground station in the space scenario). With these links in place, satellites in large-enough constellations can communicate with relevant ground stations in quasi-real-time, regardless of whether the ground station is in line-of-sight and/or range. It is clear that the extent of the usefulness of ISLs depends on the effectiveness of the routing strategy employed. The main difficulty in utilizing ISLs is the fact that in most satellite constellations, the network topology is time-varying; links will constantly be found/lost as each satellite progresses along its own orbit, hence the effectiveness of the routing strategy becomes key to exploiting the availability of ISLs.
This PhD will investigate distributed algorithms for the autonomous optimisation of ISLs within a satellite constellation. Previous research [http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/159120] has looked into the use of Ant Colony Optimisation, a bio-inspired technique that mimics the behaviour of ants foraging for food; the PhD will expand this research and assess and compare the use of other optimisation methods. It will also investigate the effect of constraints introduced into the network (such as unavailability of one or more nodes) and develop techniques to cope with them optimally. One of the paramount aspects to consider is that the system should be able to self-optimise itself (fully-distributed) without the need of a central controlling node. In this way, the loss of one or more agents does not prevent the swarm to continue to find optimal solutions.
The techniques developed for the satellite scenario can readily be extended to other applications with different agents, such as autonomous vehicles, drones, sensors, etc.
Background in computing science, applied mathematics and/or space engineering is highly recommended. In order to be eligible to apply for the School of Engineering Scholarship, an excellent CV is required.
Biomorphic control for micro-spacecraft swarms
Supervisors
Prof Colin McInnes
Dr James Beeley
Dr Kevin Worrall
Funding
Currently unfunded. Please consult the Postgraduate Research section for information on applying for support.
Description
Early work on biomorphic autonomous spacecraft considered the use analogue circuits to mimic simple spiking neural networks. It has been shown that such biomorphic systems can demonstrate quite complex emergent behaviour and can be robust to failures. While our work on 3x3 cm PCB-satellites currently uses conventional microcontrollers, the use of biomorphic control may enable even smaller, yet capable devices.
This project will firstly investigate the use of biomorphic control for ultra-small, centimetre-scale micro-spacecraft and then further develop our ideas to consider a large networked swam of devices. Key research questions include:
- How can low-level behaviours be embedded in individual centimetre-scale micro-spacecraft; for example de-tumbling, Sun-pointing, target-pointing and orbit control?
- How can interaction between the low-level biomorphic control of members of a large swarm of such devices lead to emergent, complex high-level behaviour?
- What niche applications can be foreseen which leverage the benefits of biomorphic control while competing against the performance of conventional spacecraft swarms?
The project will combine modelling, simulation and laboratory-scale testing to investigate these research questions. Candidates should have an interest in modelling and simulation and an enthusiasm for laboratory experimentation. The project will be embedded within a large group pursuing a programme of novel research on emerging space technologies.