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    • Approaches to Optimal Control of Fluid-Dynamic Actuated Small Satellites

    Paper number

    IAC-21,C1,9,8,x64696

    Author

    Mr. Adrian Fried, Germany, Technische Universität Berlin

    Coauthor

    Dr. Sebastian Grau, Germany

    Year

    2021

    Abstract
    In the wake of the development of picosatellite fluid-dynamic actuators, novel modes of operation have been proposed for small satellites recently.
In order to be able to execute these novel operational modes, optimal control approaches and refined control allocation methods are researched and presented in this paper.

First, the latest state of the development in picosatellite fluid-dynamic actuators is presented.
The paper will presenet the BEESAT-9 mission which supports a combination of three orthognally mount reaction wheel and a single fluid-dynamic actuator.
Then the dynamic properties of the fluid-dynamic actuators that were developed for the TUPEX-7 experiment will be discussed.
TUPEX-7 combines a set of three orthogonally mount fluid-dynamic actuators with a set of three orthogonally mount magnetic coils.
This pseudo-CubeSat will be launched in the scope of the REXUS cycle 12 in March 2021.

Based on previous work, an improved implementation of control allocation between reaction wheels and fluid-dynamic actuators is presented first. 
The allocation is based on the momentarily available pFDA torque.

Next, optimal control approaches for a spacecraft with three orthogonally mount reaction wheels in combinaion with a single fluid-dynamic actuator are presented.
Linear-quadratic regulator and model-predictive control approaches are employed to simulate the execution of novel small satellite modes of operation; namely artificial swath increase and single-spacecraft stereo-imaging.

To highlight the benefits of a pFDA-only attitude control system, similar control approaches are applied to a setup that consists of three orthogonal pFDAs instead.
Benefits of such a system are the quasi-instantaneous availability of large angular rates which allow for a highly agile reorientation in all three spacecraft axes.
The same novel modes of operations are simulated and the results are compared to the combination of reaction wheels and pFDAs.
    Abstract document

    IAC-21,C1,9,8,x64696.brief.pdf

    Manuscript document

    IAC-21,C1,9,8,x64696.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

    To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.