System design and attitude control experiment of a 5-DOF spacecraft simulator

Abstract

In this paper, a new 5-DOF spacecraft simulator which is a frictionless environment simulation platform is described. The simulator has two translational degrees of freedom and three rotational degrees of freedom. It is used for experimental validation of various spacecraft control strategies on the ground. A set of three inertial wheels and a set of sixteen cold-gas thrusters are used as primary actuators for attitude and position control. A ceiling-mounted camera is used to measure the attitude and position of the simulator. The implementation of the attitude and position control algorithms is done on-board using a PC104. Also, an automatic balancing system is developed to eliminate gravity disturbance torque. Finally, an attitude control experimental results is presented.