Design and implementation of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test-bed for spacecraft attitude control

Abstract

In this paper, the design and implementation of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test-bed for spacecraft attitude control are presented with respect to the practical consideration. This test-bed includes an air bearing 3-DOF table, Helmholtz coil, sun simulator, orbit simulator, reaction wheels and torqrods as actuators, gyro, GPS, AHRS, magnetometer, and processing board. In addition, online monitoring of attitude and orbit position in LabVIEW and Celestia software, data telemetry, battery package and power distribution board are developed in this case. Using this test-bed, different operational modes are evaluated and verified for satellite attitude control. The experimental results of damping mode show that the capability of decreasing the angular velocity to the desired value (0.3 deg/s). Moreover, a torque simulator to apply the disturbances and test of propulsion scenarios, online telemetry with ground station, near-optimal design of Helmholtz coil are the advantages of this test-bed.

Keywords

• satellite attitude control
• hardware-in-the-loop (hil) test-bed
• damping mode
• air bearing 3-dof table
• helmholtz coil
• disturbance torque