SpaceDrones Lab
SpaceDrones Lab is a collaborative laboratory that supports multidisciplinary research on small satellites and autonomous space applications.
Researchers in the lab utilize cutting-edge technology to provide a comprehensive hardware and software testbed facility, as well as a spacecraft simulator. These resources are utilized by investigators across multiple engineering disciplines, including, but not limited to, electrical, aerospace, ocean, and mechanical engineering.
The SpaceDrones Laboratory was established in the summer of 2018. It originated as an internship project under Space@VT, led by Virginia Tech students Gustavo Gargioni and Marco Peterson. The students developed the first version of the spacecraft simulator, now known as SpaceDrones Version 1. This version remains in use today for various graduate-level research projects, including master’s theses and doctoral dissertations.
Following its launch, additional students contributed to expanding the simulator’s capabilities by proposing new vehicle models and upgrading existing platforms. In 2020, the lab began collaborating with the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT). A year later, it relocated to the Experience Studio (Moss 161), which remains its home.
The lab is directed by research fellow Kevin Schroeder.
Projects conducted herein
Defend the Republic Competition – 2024
The Autonomous Multi-vehicle Cooperative System (AMCOS) project focuses on developing methods and algorithms that enable collaboration within a team of agents operating with limited computational resources and communication bandwidth. Because underwater unmanned vehicles (UUVs) are costly and complex to prototype, requiring significant resources for programming, transportation, deployment, and staffing, the team uses surrogate platforms. For this project, lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicles served as proxies to demonstrate system capabilities during the semi-annual Defend the Republic (DtR) competition.
CCI BattleDrones Competition – 2023
Students from Virginia Tech, George Mason University, and Old Dominion University participated in this hands-on educational competition focused on the intersection of cybersecurity, autonomy, and data. As the global market for autonomous systems continues to grow rapidly, the need for expertise in these fields becomes increasingly urgent. The program aligns with the goals of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) by expanding workforce development, addressing the cybersecurity talent gap, and enhancing diversity in the field.
A hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) - 2022
The HiL platform supports demonstrations of On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM) technologies. The testbed uses augmented reality and multi-rotor drones to simulate free-flying spacecraft. By leveraging powerful single-board computers with modern GPUs, these drones—equipped with solid-state LiDAR and camera sensors—can extract detailed pose and location data using a trained convolutional neural network (CNN). A far-field optical scene, developed to simulate complex on-orbit lighting and environmental conditions, is projected in the Cube.