ABSTRACT: This talk will be about how AIKO is revolutionizing how space missions are operated, thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence both on-board the spacecraft and on-ground, in the mission control centers. AI is posed to be one of the game-changers of the space industry, helping to achieve more scalable, profitable missions that deliver more relevant and usable data. AIKO is leading this race for the adoption of AI in space, and during this talk, we’ll cover some of the crazy things we are doing in the company. BIO: Mattia Varile, Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). Mattia's primary role involves investigating and testing innovative technologies applied to automation for the space sector. He earned his degree in Aerospace Engineering from Politecnico di Torino and gained valuable experience working as a systems engineer with the CubeSat Team Polito. Since 2018, Mattia has been an active member of AIKO, where he has honed his expertise in Artificial Intelligence, specifically in Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning. Prior to his current role, Mattia participated in several research projects and startup initiatives.

1. www.aikospace.com
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2. AIKOSPACE.COM
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End-to-end provider of AI technology
and autonomy capabilities for space
missions.
AIKO AT A GLANCE
TRACK
RECORD
TRL9
TECHNOLOGY
5 PRIME ROLES
ESA & ASI PROJECTS
2 MISSIONS
COMPLETED
FINANCIALS
OVERVIEW
2021
1.1m €
REVENUES
2022
2 m€
YEARLY PIPELINE
TEAM &
INVESTORS
28 FTE
25% PhDs
PRIMO
VENTURES
CUSTOMERS
AND PARTNERS

3. AIKOSPACE.COM
We develop AI products for
the space industry, targeted
at advanced autonomy for
spacecraft operations.
OUR ROLE
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4. AIKOSPACE.COM
Products
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5. AIKOSPACE.COM
SEVERAL
PRODUCTS.
ONE ECOSYSTEM.
3 products already on the market
3 products last mile development & business modelling
4 products planned in upcoming years
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SCALABLE OPERATIONS
OF CONSTELLATIONS
SMARTER SATELLITE
OPERATIONS
TOOLS FOR OPERATORS’
EMPOWERMENT

6. AIKOSPACE.COM
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SCALABLE OPERATIONS
OF CONSTELLATIONS
SMARTER SATELLITE
OPERATIONS
TOOLS FOR OPERATORS’
EMPOWERMENT
VISION.
Our product ecosystem will grow in
the upcoming years following a
defined roadmap of priorities.

7. 7
SPACE OPERATIONS:
TODAY’S STANDARD
AIKOSPACE.COM
1. Planning
2. Execution
3. Downlink
4. Analysis
5. Commercialization
time
5
4
2
1 3
1
2
3
4
5

8. JUNE 2022
8
SPACE OPERATIONS:
TODAY’S STANDARD
orbital_OLIVER – PRODUCT OVERVIEW AIKOSPACE.COM
1. Planning
2. Execution
3. Downlink
4. Analysis
5. Commercialization
time
5
4
2
1 3
1
2
3
5
4
Time
delays
Waste of
resources

9. 9
SPACE OPERATIONS:
CAN WE DO BETTER?
AIKOSPACE.COM
1. Planning
2. Execution
3. Analysis
4. Re-planning
5. Downlink
6. Commercialization
time
5
2
1 4
1
2
5
4
6
3 6
3

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THE BENEFITS OF EDGE-AI
fast response
real-time decision making
cost reduction
smart data processing
AIKOSPACE.COM
EDGE-AI

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OUR SOLUTION: orbital_OLIVER
AIKOSPACE.COM
AI-powered software for satellite providers
Streamlines spacecraft operations
Optimizes mission plan onboard in real-time
Compatible with COTS platforms
Tailorable to several mission scenarios

12. AIKOSPACE.COM
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cloudy_CHARLES
The solution has been widely
tested and adapted to a wide
variety of hardware accelerators.
A READY-TO-MARKET
PRODUCT
We provide a small software
package ready to be uploaded
in operational satellite.
PLUG-AND-PLAY
Cloudy_CHARLES has reached
TRL9 in 2019 and has been widely
tested and adopted by leading
companies in EO.
VALIDATION
TO TRL9

13. AIKOSPACE.COM
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AI-BASED CLOUD
DETECTOR
TARGETING MULTI-PLATFORM SPCE MISSION CONCEPTS WITH A PORTFOLIO OF
PRODUCTS FOR THE AUTONOMY OF FEDERATED MISSION ARCHITECTURES.
WHAT WE PROVIDE
BALANCED
DATASET
The model is trained on a wide and balanced
dataset capable of working robustly in
different environmental conditions
SIMPLIFIED
ADAPTATION
We developed an automated pipeline for
adaptation to a wide variety of optical sensors,
reducing the complexities in getting to a custom
cloud segmentation solution.

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MAXIMIZE DATA VOLUME EXCHANGE AND OVERALL
THROUGHPUT ACROSS THE SATELLITE NETWORK.
MINIMIZE DATA LATENCY AND MAXIMIZE SERVICE
RESILIENCE.
OPTIMAL ROUTING
FOR CONSTELLATION
Distributed software product composed by a ground
module, to be integrated in the MCC software
framework, and an onboard module, installed in each
satellite platform, acting co-ordinately to ensure
optimal routing across the entire satellite network.
speedy_SKYLAR
Your constellation becomes delay and disruption
tolerant without human intervention while
guaranteeing maximum data throughput.
speedy_SKYLAR has been validated to TRL7..

15. AIKOSPACE.COM
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GROUND
MODULE
Connect the software using
simple APIs. Possibility to
deploy on-premise or on-
cloud infrastructure.
EASE OF
FRAMEWORK
INTEGRATION
Human operators can interact
with the software to assess the
results of different
optimization approaches.
FULLY
AUTOMATED
CHAIN
SELECT THE
OPTIMAL LINKS TO BE
Fairly maximize network throughput +
Maximize satellite or cluster throughput +
Computes all the optimal and
suboptimal routes from each
network node to the others
through all the possible links.
OPTIMAL
ROUTING
STRATEGIES
Continuously use stored
information (orbits, daily
plans, link configurations, etc)
to define the constellation
network topology.
DYNAMIC
NETWORK
MAP

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ONBOARD
MODULE
Software tested and validated
on an operational hardware
environment.
READY FOR
INTEGRATION
Receive continuously updated
network topology information
and data routes to all the other
nodes from the ground module.
CUSTOM
NETWORK MAP
Each satellite autonomously
reacts to unpredictable
communication delays or
disruptions of the network.
ONBOARD
AUTONOMY
Assign priorities to balance overall traffic +
Select optimal paths +
ONBOARD ROUTE
SELECTION
Re-route high-priority data packets +
Assess link availability +
Low computational cost, highly
compatible with a wide variety
of embedded frameworks.
MINIMAL
FOOTPRINT

17. AIKOSPACE.COM
Research projects
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18. AIKOSPACE.COM
EVENT
DETECTION
On-board real-
time monitoring &
data prioritization
SAR
FOCUSING
On-board DL-based
data focusing
algorithm
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SAR DATA PROCESSING
Other Applications: Adaptive SAR data compression
Heritage
OPEN INNOVATION
CHALLENGE
SAR processing towards
autonomous satellite
AIKO RESEARCH
Data-driven prototype
for on-board SAR focusing
Deep Learning Model Output SLC product

19. AIKOSPACE.COM
Telemetry
Prediction
Time-series
forecasting of TM
parameters which are
of particular interest
for an operators.
Anomaly
Detection
Detection of anomalies
within the nominal
operational ranges.
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DL4SPACE
Deep Learning for AIT
and OPS applications
TELEMETRY ANALYSIS
Other Applications: Root-Cause Analysis, command
patterns and predictions, diagnosis of trends
Heritage
AI@CENTECH
Payload TM data
anomaly detection
OneWeb POC
Deep Learning real-time
and historical TLM analysis
(approved, to be started)

20. AIKOSPACE.COM
RL-based maneuvering
Provide low-thrust control actions to reach the target
while optimizing fuel and time of flight.
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AUTONOMOUS G&C - AISAC
Applications: Change of mission orbit, collision avoidance,
station keeping, rendezvous
AUTONOMOUS
LANDING
COOPERATIVE
MANEUVERING
Dynamic reconfiguration
In orbit servicing
Monitoring
Lunar touchdown
Powered descent
6-DoF control
Ongoing research

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Applications: Regional observations, change of mission
objectives, deployment, failure of one or more satellites
DYNAMIC
RECONFIGURATION
PERFORMANCE
EVALUATION
In-depth analysis of given
constellation geometries
Optimization of constellation
geometry wrt desired metrics
Capabilities
AI-based reconfiguration tool
Optimize the constellation pattern to focus the available
resources and satisfy changing mission objectives.
MANEUVER
OPTIMIZATION
Design and path planning of
reconfiguration maneuvers
CONSTELLATION MANAGEMENT

22. AIKOSPACE.COM
On-board
operations planning
On-board
Agent for optimizing long-
horizon outcome of EOS missions.
Downlink
optimization
Scheduling most
important data to be
downloaded to ground.
2022
22
– MARLA –
Multi-satellite
task management
Multi-agent system for satellite
operations planning in
constellation scenarios.
MARLA (Mission Autonomy through Reinforcement Learning Agents) is an
AIKO internal R&D project focused on the study of RL algorithms for
satellite operations management.
To provide advanced on-board planning capabilities for both single-agent
and multi-agent scenarios.
Applications
AUTONOMOUS PLANNING - MARLA

23. AIKOSPACE.COM
AIKO Capabilities
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COMPUTER VISION
DETECTION
SEGMENTATION
KEYPOINTS
DETECTION
t0 t1

24. AIKOSPACE.COM
AIKO Capabilities
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COMPUTER VISION
Terrain
segmentation
Morphological
refinement
Shadow
detection
Heritage
Results
TRL9
TECHNOLOGY

25. AIKOSPACE.COM
AIKO Capabilities
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VISUAL NAVIGATION
Landing: Hazard
Detection
Relative navigation
Keypoints regresison for Pose
Estimation
Monocular SLAM

26. AIKOSPACE.COM
Multi-Task
Learning
Improved learning
efficiency and
prediction accuracy
Data Centric AI
SATELLITE synthetic
dataset generation &
tailored ground-truth
export
2022
SATELLITE NAVIGATION AND POSE ESTIMATION
Applications: In-Orbit Servicing, monitoring, deorbiting,
repairing, refuelling, docking, Rendezvous Proximity Operations,
Visual Navigation, 3D shape reconstruction, Inspection.
Heritage
AIVIONIC
Deep-Learning for visual
navigation
Kelvins
Pose Estimation Challenge
jolly_JANE
Internal Research Project
6D POSE

27. AIKOSPACE.COM
Multi-Task
Learning
Improved learning
efficiency and
prediction accuracy
Data Centric AI
SATELLITE synthetic
dataset generation &
tailored ground-truth
export
2022
AUTONOMOUS LANDING
Applications: Crater & Boulder detector, Hazard Detection & Avoidance,
Visual Odometry & SLAM, autonomous landing, Terrain Relative Navigation
Heritage
MASTEN
Deep-Learning for
Hazard and Avoidance
during Moon Landing
jolly_JUNO
Internal Research Project

28. AIKOSPACE.COM
2022

29. Thanks for your attention!
www.aikospace.com
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Speck and Tech 2023