A smart sensor-based hierarchical control system for an extraterrestrial oxygen production plant

An autonomous control program for the space materials processing plant being developed at the NASA Space Engineering Research Center of the University of Arizona is described, with special emphasis on the lowest hardware layer. This layer features dynamically reprogrammable, truly "smart", sensors with peripheral control capabilities, managed by a novel additional control layer near the top of the hierarchy. Steady-state operational data containing an interesting anomaly, from which the system recovered without operator assistance, is also presented.