Guidance and Control Neural Network Acceleration using Memristors

In recent years, the space community has been exploring the possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), for a variety of on board applications. However, this development is limited by the restricted energy budget of smallsats and cubesats as well as radiation concerns plaguing modern chips. This necessitates research into neural network accelerators capable of meeting these requirements whilst satisfying the compute and performance needs of the application. This paper explores the use of Phase-Change Memory (PCM) and Resistive Random-Access Memory (RRAM) memristors for on-board in-memory computing AI acceleration in space applications. A guidance and control neural network (G&CNET) accelerated using memristors is simulated in a variety of scenarios and with both device types to evaluate the performance of memristor-based accelerators, considering device non-idealities such as noise and conductance drift. We show that the memristive accelerator is able to learn the expert actions, though challenges remain with the impact of noise on accuracy. We also show that re-training after degradation is able to restore performance to nominal levels. This study provides a foundation for future research into memristor-based AI accelerators for space, highlighting their potential and the need for further investigation.