
Attitude determination and control system test facility
We offer various air-bearing simulators and demonstrator platforms.
Aquarius
Air-bearing microsatellite simulator
- Static 3DoF platform (Pitch, Roll, Yaw) using hemispherical air-bearing
- Full AOCS simulator incorporating Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Control Moment Gyros (CMGs), and secondary inclinometer
- Supports both prolate and oblate spacecraft configurations
- Manual balancing using mass blocks to compensate for gravity disturbance torque
- Automatic balancing based on feedback control of counter masses
- Vision-based Enhanced Attitude Determination using detection and tracking of onboard infrared LED fiducials.
Orion
Air-bearing nanosatellite simulator
- Static 3DoF platform (Pitch, Roll, Yaw) using hemispherical air-bearing
- Accommodation for flight representative spacecraft systems, including CubeSat form factor
- Capable of automatic balancing based on feedback control of translation masses
- Test bed developed to study effects of deployable structures and innovative attitude control systems embedded within these structures.
Intrepid
Air-bearing CMG demonstrator platform
- Static 3DoF platform (Pitch, Roll, Yaw) using hemispherical air-bearing
- Quadratic platform (100x100cm) allowing +/- 10º in Roll and Pitch with automatic balancing with trimming masses
- Full satellite Hardware in Loop (HiL) platform, capable of communicating over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with full representative satellite hardware
- Attitude control incorporate four CMG with feedback control using a high precision IMU
- Compatible with dSPACE and Matlab with bespoke toolboxes for rapid HiL development
- Pointing accuracy less than 0.1° with rates better than 0.01°/s
- System currently under development.