Systems Development of a Two-Axis Stabilised Platform to Facilitate Astronomical Observations from a Moving Base

This project aimed to design, simulate, and implement a two-axis inertially stabilised platform (ISP) for use in astronomical applications. It aimed to approximate the stabilisation of a Meade ETX-90 3.5″ compound telescope at low-cost using a mechanical assembly designed to geometrically and inertially model the telescope. A set of system specifications was developed to guide design decisions and to provide an analysis framework against which the performance of the implemented system was compared. The electro-mechanical structure of the ISP was designed and manufactured, the associated electrical systems were specified and configured, an image processing script capable of detecting and locating the centre of the Moon in a camera field-of-view was written, a complete simulation model for the system was developed and used to design various classical controllers for the ISP control system. These controllers were implemented on a STM32F051 microcontroller and a user interface was written in LabVIEW to facilitate intuitive user control of the system and perform datalogging of the system runtime data.