International Workshop on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems for Space Applications
MASSpace-26
May 26, 2026, at AAMAS 2026, the 25th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Paphos, Cyprus

Table of Contents


1Description

This workshop aims at disseminating and sharing recent advances in the use of agent-based and multi-agent-based models and techniques in the Space domain. Indeed, the use of agent-based and multi-agent systems (MAS) in aerospace and space is gaining traction, as they offer a promising approach for modeling and solving distributed, complex and dynamic problems. Sample applications notably include multiple spacecraft operations and maintenance, onboard-ground coordination, mission simulation, multi-mission operation, autonomous navigation, and collective robotics.

AAMAS-related areas such as Engineering Multiagent Systems, Knowledge Representation, Reasoning, and Planning, Markets, Auctions, and Non-Cooperative Game Theory or Modelling and Simulation of Societies, develop relevant models and techniques to address such Space-related applications.

2Call for Papers

Workshop Context

The workshop on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems for Space Applications (MASSpace) aims to be a multidisciplinary meeting place to discuss the contributions of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems to the space domain. In deed, the Space domain is moving fast, and recent evolution tends to consider more and more complex and composite systems (e.g. larger constellations, multiple-mission federations, multi-user systems, heterogenous robotic systems), with stronger expectations, notably to perform more and more accurate environmental monitoring, complex requests, or richer exploration scenarios. In such context, agent-based and multi-agent systems appear to provide relevant paradigms to answer to these expectations.

In recent years, several papers applying AAMAS models and techniques to Space domain have been published in AAMAS and other venues which strongly advocates for organizing an event on the cross-fertilization of AAMAS and Space, as (i) to provide Space domain experts with the means to use these multi-agent models and techniques, and (ii) to challenge multi-agents models and techniques with novel problems coming from the Space domain. Thus, any AAMAS attendee could find interest in participating to the workshop, due to the broad scope of relevant AAMAS-related topics.

Topics

Since the early years of AAMAS, Space have been identified as a very relevant and challenging application domain, and today, with the ever growing size and complexity of Space missions and their environment (e.g. NewSpace), all AAMAS topics and techniques (see AAMAS call for papers) have becoming even more relevant to address this innovative and challenging topics, such as (but not limited to):

  • Organizations and institutions to model Space Systems
  • Policy, regulation, sanctions, accountability and legislation for Space Systems, especially New Space Applications
  • Trust and reputation in Space Systems
  • Architecture and modelling for Space Applications
  • Formal verification and validation of agent-based Space Systems
  • Programming models and languages to develop agent-based Space Applications
  • Human-agent interaction especially in Space environment and constraints
  • Distributed problem solving to efficiently coordinate decisions made by space assets and actors
  • Coalition formation to coordinate multiple missions and systems
  • Single-agent and multi-agent planning and scheduling to determine plans to be performed by missions
  • Reasoning and learning under uncertainty to devise robust plans and behaviors
  • Machine learning and deep learning to adapt systems and agents behaviors
  • Auctions and Mechanism Design to coordinate resource allocation in Space Systems
  • Interactive simulation to assess Space Systems in realistic but simulated settings
  • Simulation of complex systems such as Space Systems
  • Fair Allocation of Space assets between multiple stakeholders
  • Single- and Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning to learn collective behaviors
  • RL in partially observable settings to handle uncontrolled environments
  • Safe, Robust, Explainable RL to provide strong guarantees on learning agents
  • Multi-robot coordination and collaboration for Observation and Exploration missions

The workshop welcomes submissions addressing any such topics applied to any Space-related application or used case, ranging from ground operations to deep space observation and exploration.

3 Important Dates

  • Submission of contributions to workshops: February 22, 2026 February 4, 2026
  • Paper acceptance notification: Mar 20, 2026
  • Call for participation: Mar 20, 2026
  • Workshop: May 26, 2026

4 Submission Instructions

Submission URL: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/MASSpace2026

Submission Types

  • Technical Papers: Full-length research papers of up to 8 pages (excluding references and appendices) detailing high quality work in progress or work that could potentially be published at a major conference.
  • Short Papers: Position or short papers of up to 4 pages (excluding references and appendices) that describe initial work or the release of privacy-preserving benchmarks and datasets on the topics of interest.

All papers must be submitted in PDF format, using the AAMAS-26 author kit. Submissions should include the name(s), affiliations, and email addresses of all authors.

Submissions will be refereed on the basis of technical quality, novelty, significance, and clarity. Each submission will be thoroughly reviewed by at least two program committee members.

5 Programme

Invited speakers

Caleb A. Adams (NASA)

  • Title:

    Developing Distributed Autonomous Space Systems

  • Abstract:

    The development of distributed autonomous space systems is crucial for advancing NASA's Small Spacecraft and Distributed Systems (SSDS) program. The Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA) project at NASA's Ames Research Center aims to enable autonomous multi-agent decision-making in multi-spacecraft operations, mitigating the effects of communication constraints like latency and bandwidth. This talk will discuss recent advancements in DSA technologies and applications, including distributed resource and task management, reactive operations, and ad hoc network communications. In additional to technical implementations, we will discuss software development strategies for rapid on-orbit testing. We will also highlight successes from the Starling 1.0 mission, The Starling 1.5 mission extension, and a space traffic coordination technology demonstration that showcased autonomous satellite operations without human intervention. Our work focuses on building flight heritage and experience for low-TRL software, raising confidence in new autonomy and distributed control capabilities for next-generation space missions.

  • Bio:

    Caleb Ashmore Adams is a Project Manager and Principal Investigator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. He leads the Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA) group which demonstrates advanced swarm technologies on multi-spacecraft missions. He is also the Deputy Project Manager of the Starling mission, a 4-satellite swarm. On Starling, DSA demonstrated the first fully autonomous distributed space mission, and it continues to accomplish firsts-in-space while in operations today.

    Due to the success of DSA, Caleb was selected by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) to lead the preliminary design study of NASA’s Next Generation Multi-Agent Swarm. He is also the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Topic Manager for Autonomous Systems under NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) where he oversees investments into US industry that support NASA’s mission to explore our solar system.

    Caleb is the Project Manager and Principal Investigator for the Low-Light Universal Mapping for Extreme Environments (LUMEN) team where he works closely with researchers across industry and academia (Stanford, UC Berkeley, Nvidia, Google) to apply modern AI and computer vision techniques to the challenging environment of space.

    Caleb won an Early Career Achievement award from NASA’s STMD in 2024 and was awarded NASA’s STMD’s highly competitive Early Career Initiative (ECI) in 2025. Under his leadership, the DSA and Starling teams have won 3 separate group achievement awards. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Georgia, was featured as one of the University of Georgia’s 40 under 40 in 2025, and a recipient of the University of Georgia’s Graduate School’s 2025 Alumni of Distinction Award.

6 Committees

Chairs

Programme Committee (TBC)

  • Caleb A. Adams, NASA
  • Alexandre Albore, ONERA
  • Abigail Breitfeld, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Thibault Gateau, ISAE‑SUPAERO
  • Alessandro Golkar, Technical University of Munich
  • Tal Grinshpoun, Ariel University
  • Jonathan Guerra, Airbus Defence & Space
  • Christopher Hays, United States Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate
  • Michael J Iatauro, NASA Ames Research Center
  • Elsy Kaddoum, IRIT
  • Nicolas Longepe, ESA
  • Cedric Pralet, Onera
  • Serge Rainjonneau, Thales Alenia Space
  • Ananya Rao, Carnegie Mellon University
  • David Rijlaarsdam, Ubotica Technologies
  • Federico Rossi, Jet Propulsion Laboratory - California Institute of Technology

7 Acknowledgments

Microsoft CMT

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Author: Gauthier Picard