Method of automated arrangement of devices in a spacecraft compartment taking into account connection to interface connectors of feed-through plates of an on-board cable system

Abstract

The article proposes a method for automated arrangement of on-board equipment in the spacecraft compartment, connected to external devices through sealed adapters by the on-board cable system routes. The purpose is to create a program that allows automated placing of a part of the on-board equipment in the compartment, taking into account the existing practical principles for developing instrument placement schemes, one of which is to minimize the mass of the on-board cable system. The mathematical model is described using the matrix-topological layout method in a procedural form, as well as in a numerical form for calculating the coordinates of the placement of devices and estimating the number of cycles to find the final solution. Recommendations are provided to ensure that the full range of technical requirements is taken into account in the future. An outline flowchart of the method algorithm is presented with support in the high-level Python programming language. The software implementation of the method was carried out with emulators. Testing was carried drawing on the example of a compartment of one of the advanced space vehicles. The effectiveness of the method is evaluated by comparing the number of cycles needed to obtain the result and the total time spent on the layout relative to the control data known from the job statistics.