ESA used satellite as a game console. It means that we can hear from space hardware. Amateur radio operators from Norway and Poland have successfully issued an audio command to the satellite OPS-SAT.
Amateur radio operators control satellite with voice
The sound has been processed and resulted in running the old 1993 shooter – DOOM. This is very important, because we have demonstrated that it is possible to run complicated software using only low-power radio signals on the space hardware. No need for high-speed data links. We have confirmed that it is possible to control things by our voice.
The platform for that experiment is satellite OPS-SAT. It is equipped with the special voice recognition model for the space. Model has only 27MB size and it is able to transform spoken English to text command in space.
For this purpose people used Icom IC-9700 radio. This radio was used to issue a command. For listening they have used Wimo Helical antenna, 15.1dBi gain.
It is possible to interpret the human voice. No need for computer at the ground station to process it first.
For technical execution it has been required to configure radio settings and do several attempts due to challenges with signal. Operators have used 80W power for transmitting, using 1296MHz frequency range. To reach success it was necessary 7 attempts to properly recognize command to start a game.
Last 2 attempts were successful in late July. The game logic is executed successfully after the right voice trigger. We have proven that our quantized model 27MB size can work reliably in space, despite extreme conditions.
It is very important for the practical use of compact AI models. The OPS-SAT project has shown that it is possible to trigger complex application by voice for hardware with limited capabilities. Operators from LA4O from Norway and team from Poland have coordinated transmission process.
We have proven that in space missions we can use user friendly things like voice control. It will simplify the work with satellites in the future for the cases when we need to execute some specific software tasks on demand.
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