A Modification to Integral Pulse-Width Pulse-Frequency Modulator

Abstract

This paper presents a modification to a type of Pulse-width Pulse-Frequency (PWPF) Modulator utilized an integrator block. In this modulator that called here as "Integral Pulse-Width Pulse-Frequency (IPWPF)," an integrator is used instead of the first-order low-pass filter. To improve the performance of the control system, the modulator is modified by using a logical circuit in order to reset the output of the integrator. In this logical circuit, if the error signal becomes less than a specified small value, the integrator will be reset, that is, "Small Error-Reset Integrator (SE-RI)." The modification is applied to the stabilization and pointing modes. In stabilization mode, the control gain is obtained analytically such that the angular rate of the satellite becomes zero or less than a specific percentage of its initial value by a single pulse. Simulation results show that the performance of the modified IPWPF is comparable with that of PWPF in pointing mode.

Keywords

• spacecraft attitude control
• pulse-width pulse-frequency modulator
• stablization and pointing modes