ATMOS robot teleoperation demo overcomes intercontinental network delays

Autonomous spacecraft teleoperation faces a fundamental challenge: communication delays and packet loss between Earth and orbit degrade real-time control. To address this, an international team led by Inkyu Jang, Gregorio Marchesini, and collaborators from Seoul National University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and other institutions developed and tested a control strategy on ATMOS (Autonomy Testbed for Multi-purpose Orbiting Systems). ATMOS is a planar, air-bearing robot that simulates microgravity conditions for hardware-in-the-loop evaluation of guidance and control algorithms. The key innovation is a state prediction layer that compensates for random, time-varying round-trip communication latency, coupled with a trajectory tracking controller that enables safe, precise docking maneuvers.

The team validated their approach in a demanding real-world scenario: a remote control experiment spanning approximately 1,100 km between Seoul, South Korea, and Stockholm, Sweden. This intercontinental setup introduced realistic delays, jitter, and packet loss, closely mimicking the conditions of actual space communication links. The results showed that ATMOS maintains stable docking performance even when round-trip delays vary unpredictably, demonstrating the system's ability to support rapid, reliable, and cost-effective testing of teleoperation concepts. Accepted for publication at IFAC 2026, this work establishes a repeatable testbed for validating on-orbit operations on Earth, reducing the need for expensive space-based experiments. For future missions, this means remote operators could safely guide spacecraft for servicing, refueling, or debris removal despite the inherent lag of deep-space networks.