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.