Autonomous Control and Diagnostics of Space Reactor Systems

This paper describes three key features of the development of an autonomous control strategy for space reactor systems. These include the development of a reactor simulation model for transient analysis, development of model-predictive control as part of the autonomous control strategy, and a fault detection and isolation module. The latter is interfaced with the control supervisor as part of a hierarchical control system. The approach has been applied to the nodal model of the SP-100 reactor with a thermo-electric generator. The results of application demonstrate the effectiveness of the control approach and its ability to reconfigure the control mode under fault conditions. (authors)