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arXiv · 2504.04160

OrbitZoo: Real Orbital Systems Challenges for Reinforcement Learning

Alexandre Oliveira·Katarina Dyreby·Francisco Caldas·Cláudia Soares
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Abstract

The increasing number of satellites and orbital debris has made space congestion a critical issue, threatening satellite safety and sustainability. Challenges such as collision avoidance, station-keeping, and orbital maneuvering require advanced techniques to handle dynamic uncertainties and multi-agent interactions. Reinforcement learning (RL) has shown promise in this domain, enabling adaptive, autonomous policies for space operations; however, many existing RL frameworks rely on custom-built environments developed from scratch, which often use simplified models and require significant time to implement and validate the orbital dynamics, limiting their ability to fully capture real-world complexities. To address this, we introduce OrbitZoo, a versatile multi-agent RL environment built on a high-fidelity industry standard library, that enables realistic data generation, supports scenarios like collision avoidance and cooperative maneuvers, and ensures robust and accurate orbital dynamics. The environment is validated against a real satellite constellation, Starlink, achieving a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of 0.16% compared to real-world data. This validation ensures reliability for generating high-fidelity simulations and enabling autonomous and independent satellite operations.

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Alexandre Oliveira, Katarina Dyreby, Francisco Caldas, Cláudia Soares. 2025-10-14. OrbitZoo: Real Orbital Systems Challenges for Reinforcement Learning. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.04160

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