English

Spacecraft Autonomy Levels

Systems and Control 2025-03-04 v1 Systems and Control

Abstract

As autonomous systems are being developed in multiple industries it has been recognized that a phased approach is needed both for technical development and user acceptance. Partially in response, the automotive and aircraft industries have published five or six Levels of Autonomy in an attempt to broadly characterize the amount of autonomy technology that is present in any particular vehicle. We propose six Spacecraft Autonomy Levels to characterize and describe the high-level autonomous capabilities for any given satellite. Our proposed spacecraft autonomy levels parallel those of the automotive and aircraft levels in an attempt to maintain consistency and a common understanding. We see these autonomy levels as useful in education and communication with lawmakers, government officials, and the general public.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.01049,
  title  = {Spacecraft Autonomy Levels},
  author = {Daniel Baker and Sean Phillips},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.01049},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

13 pages, 5 figures, to be published in 2025 AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting conference proceedings

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:03:53.555Z