Robust Bio-regenerative life support systems control

Abstract

Recent developments in the international space community have shown that there is an increasing interest in the human exploration of outer space. In particular, the objective of sending a manned mission to Mars by 2030 has been settled. The feasibility of such a mission will require life support systems (LSSs) able to provide vital elements to the exploration crew in an autonomous, self-sustained manner, as resupply from Earth will not be possible. Bio-regenerative life support systems (BLSSs) are considered to be the LSS technology alternatives that can meet this demand. Developing effective BLSSs is a challenge for the control community because of the high degree of automation, indeterminism, non-linearity, and instability in such systems. This chapter proposes to provide robustness to the system for tasks such as distributed control, intelligent control, fault detection and identification, or high-level planning and supervision. © 2008 Springer-Verlag London.