KTH Space Robotics Laboratory · ATMOS free-flyers

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on real hardware, remotely.

Build a Docker image, push it to our registry, submit your experiment, and get results with ROS bag data from your browser.

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Acquiring ATMOS · 0%

The service

What is Constellation?

Constellation is a platform for running user-supplied container images on robots. Operated by DISCOWER, the service is open to researchers at no cost during its pilot phase. Users package an experiment as a Docker image and submit it for operator review. An operator runs approved experiments on ATMOS, after which users can download ROS bag recordings and logs.

ATMOS is a fully open-source free-flyer platform developed by DISCOWER for space robotics research. Air bearings let it glide with minimal friction over a flat floor, while compressed-air thrusters emulate spacecraft propulsion. Together, they simulate spacecraft dynamics in two dimensions for testing and validating space systems. At the KTH Space Robotics Laboratory, laboratory motion capture tracks the free-flyers as spacecraft and space-robot analogs for testing autonomous control, planning, and multi-agent systems under microgravity-like conditions.

  • Frictionless free-flyers
  • 3-DoF spacecraft dynamics
  • ROS 2 + PX4 + Docker
  • 14 m² test area
  • Mocap tracking
  • Gazebo digital twin
About ATMOS → About DISCOWER → Lab specifications →
Three ATMOS free-flyers on the epoxy floor of the KTH Space Robotics Laboratory
Close-up of an ATMOS free-flyer with its onboard computer and air tanks
ATMOS free-flyers at the KTH Space Robotics Laboratory. Photos: KTH.

Mission profile

How it works

  1. 01

    Build

    Develop your experiment

    Build and test your ROS 2 algorithm against the ATMOS interfaces, using the guides and local Gazebo simulation.

  2. 02

    Uplink

    Package & submit

    Package your experiment as an ARM64 Docker image, push it to your registry namespace, and submit it for operator review.

  3. 03

    Execute

    Run on ATMOS

    An operator runs your approved experiment on an ATMOS free-flyer in the lab, tracked by motion capture.

  4. 04

    Downlink

    Download results

    Download the ROS bag recordings, logs, and other experiment outputs from your browser.

Publication

Cite this work

IEEE Transactions on Field Robotics · 2026 · vol. 3, pp. 141–161

Toward Open-Source and Modular Space Systems With ATMOS

Pedro Roque, Sujet Phodapol, Elias Krantz, Jaeyoung Lim, et al.

Read the paper → arXiv preprint
Show BibTeX 
@ARTICLE{11245595,
  author={Roque, Pedro and Phodapol, Sujet and Krantz, Elias and Lim, Jaeyoung
          and Verhagen, Joris and Jiang, Frank J. and Dörner, David and Mao, Huina
          and Tibert, Gunnar and Siegwart, Roland and Stenius, Ivan and Tumova, Jana
          and Fuglesang, Christer and Dimarogonas, Dimos V.},
  journal={IEEE Transactions on Field Robotics},
  title={Toward Open-Source and Modular Space Systems With ATMOS},
  year={2026},
  volume={3},
  pages={141-161},
  doi={10.1109/TFR.2025.3632772}}

Support Constellation

Help us open space robotics to more researchers

Constellation is built to give researchers hands-on time with real space robotics hardware, without needing a lab of their own. It is new and in its pilot phase; with your support, we can:

  • Keep the platform open to researchers and students, and grow it beyond its pilot phase.
  • Extend its capabilities with features such as multi-robot experiments, and more ATMOS actuation modules, sensing capabilities and functionalities.
Get in touch → Email the team

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