Seedlabs

FlyCOTS: Radiation-Tolerant Scheduler for SmallSat Onboard Computers

A flight-software deployment tool for small satellites that sizes task replication against measured radiation fault rates on cheap commercial multicore processors, so missions can fly COTS computers instead of costly radiation-hardened ones. It emits a flashable replicated schedule plus a failure-budget report for mission assurance reviews.

Computer ScienceParallel Computing and Optimization Techniques
Hybrid Graph-Based Memory and SchedulingSmall-satellite onboard software deployment on COTS multicore computers in LEO radiation environments.

Concept

FlyCOTS is a flight-software deployment tool for small satellites that lets missions fly inexpensive commercial multicore onboard computers in orbit. The mission engineer supplies the onboard software as a dependency task graph, per-core fault-rate estimates for the target orbit (from published single-event-upset rates or radiation test data for the chosen COTS processor), and a mission-level failure-rate target for critical functions such as attitude control, fault management, and payload sequencing. The tool sizes the replication factor of each task — replicating only as much as the target demands — and emits a static schedule for the OBC that meets the failure-rate constraint with the shortest possible schedule length, keeping control loops real-time. Deliverables: a flashable schedule/replication plan plus a per-task failure-budget report that mission assurance reviews can evaluate, replacing the current binary choice between costly radiation-hardened computers and unquantified COTS risk.

Why now

Paper [0] demonstrates a scheduler that takes the global system failure rate as a constraint, minimizes schedule length, and controls per-task replication accordingly — and is the first bicriteria (length, reliability) algorithm to improve reliability by several orders of magnitude, which the authors note makes it suitable for safety-critical systems. Crucially for space use, the failure-rate criterion is decoupled from schedule length (unlike classical reliability under the exponential model), so replication can be sized directly against orbit fault-rate estimates — exactly the calculation needed to turn a COTS processor's radiation-induced fault rate into a mission-acceptable system failure rate.

Written by GLM · 2 Oct 2026

AI assessment

Backed by 1 paper82

A highly focused application of a specific scheduling algorithm to the high-value SmallSat market, though it suffers from low novelty due to its near-identity to the ParetoSafe idea.

Evidence strength
5/5
The idea directly maps the bicriteria (length, reliability) optimization from the cited paper to the specific problem of COTS radiation fault rates in LEO.
Market pull
4/5
There is a strong, existing economic incentive for satellite operators to move from expensive rad-hard hardware to COTS if mission assurance can be quantified.
Novelty & moat
2/5
The core mechanism is identical to ParetoSafe; it is essentially ParetoSafe rebranded for the space industry without adding a new technical moat.
Feasibility
4/5
The tool is a design-time compiler/scheduler, making it a software-only MVP that can be validated against existing radiation data.
Wedge clarity
5/5
The wedge is extremely sharp: replacing rad-hard hardware with COTS via a failure-budget report for mission assurance reviews.
Simplicity / focus
5/5
The product is a single, focused tool with one clear input (task graph/fault rates) and one clear output (flashable schedule/report).

Scored by Gemma 4 · 2 Oct 2026. Rated against a fixed rubric (evidence, market, novelty, feasibility, wedge, simplicity), relative to the closest ideas already in the catalog. A prior estimate to compare ideas before real-world signal arrives.

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Who benefits

  • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratoryorganization

    JPL regularly flies experimental COTS compute on smallsat and deep-space demonstrations and must argue fault tolerance quantitatively; a scheduler that converts orbit SEU estimates into a replication plan gives mission assurance a defensible artifact.

  • GomSpacecompany

    The smallsat OBC and platform supplier could differentiate its COTS-based computers by shipping a tool that lets customers meet mission failure-rate targets through scheduled replication rather than pricier rad-hard parts.

  • Bright Ascensioncompany

    Its flight software product line for smallsats could add a deployment module that ingests a mission's task graph and emits a replicated static schedule with a failure-budget report, deepening its off-the-shelf offering.

  • ESAorganization

    ESA's push to use COTS components in LEO missions needs quantified fault-tolerance methods; this tool turns radiation fault-rate data into an explicit failure-rate guarantee at the software scheduling layer.

Research it builds on

  1. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing
    Alain Girault, Hamoudi Kalla · 2026 · 309 citations
    All ideas from this paper →
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