Automated Spacecraft Design via Digital Twin
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current processes for designing and delivering spacecrafts are lengthy, cumbersome, and expensive, taking between 28 and 48 months and requiring substantial time and input from subject-matter experts.
Innovation Solution
The development of software-based methods and systems for rapid design and delivery of spacecrafts, which includes receiving mission parameters, generating concept designs, creating CAD models, performing analyses, and generating a digital twin for virtual representation of the spacecraft.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional spacecraft design processes are used, then design quality and reliability are maintained, but design time and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital twin (virtual copy) of the spacecraft that mirrors the physical system's behavior and characteristics. This digital replica allows for virtual testing, analysis, and optimization without requiring physical prototypes or extensive manual simulations, thereby maintaining design quality while dramatically reducing design time from 14-30 months to 2 months.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical and manual design processes with automated software-based systems. The digital twin technology substitutes physical testing and manual analysis with virtual simulations, eliminating the need for lengthy iterative design cycles while preserving design reliability through comprehensive virtual validation.
2Manufacturing precision
If traditional spacecraft design processes are used, then thorough analysis and validation are achieved, but productivity and delivery speed decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The digital twin serves as a precise virtual replica that enables comprehensive analysis and validation to be performed in the virtual domain. All thorough engineering analyses can be conducted on the digital model without requiring physical prototypes, maintaining manufacturing precision while accelerating delivery speed through parallel virtual testing and automated validation processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary design validation and analysis in the digital domain before any physical manufacturing occurs. The digital twin allows for early detection and correction of design issues through virtual testing, ensuring thorough analysis is completed upfront rather than requiring lengthy iterative physical testing during the manufacturing phase.
3Productivity
If automated design systems are implemented, then design time is reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
While the digital twin technology itself represents a complex software system, it consolidates multiple analysis tools, simulation environments, and validation processes into a single integrated virtual model. This centralized approach, though technologically advanced, simplifies the overall design workflow by providing a unified platform rather than requiring coordination of multiple separate complex systems.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for automated spacecraft design includes receiving mission parameters provided by a client for spacecraft design, generating one or more concept designs based on the received mission parameters, each concept design including one or more components selected for each subsystem included in a designed spacecraft, for each concept design, generating a CAD model including a collection of CADs representing structures of the one or more components selected for each subsystem included in the designed spacecraft, performing a series of analyses or simulations to evaluate a performance of the CAD model, and generating a digital twin representing a virtual representation of the designed spacecraft.