Designing, implementation and validation of a laboratory for sun sensor test and calibration

In this paper, designing, implementation and validation of a laboratory for sun sensor test and calibration would be presented. In this laboratory, power, spectrum, uniformity, subtending angle, and the parallelism of the sunbeams and also the angular motion of sun sensor with respect to sun simulator are accurately simulated. Using the simulator, test and calibration of sun sensors in different angular maneuvering would be possible. This capability depends on a method for precise calibration of 3DOF motion simulator and sun simulator with respect together. This calibration method is used to make the sunbeams and optical axes of sun sensors, which is perpendicular to the sun sensor surface, parallel and coaxial. In the beginning of the paper, the detailed description and adjustment methods for each of the components of the simulator are presented. Afterwards, an algorithm for making the optical axes of the sun sensor coaxial with the axis of the sun simulator beams will be developed. Furthermore, each of the specifications of the produced beams is compared with the sunbeams specifications using the existent peripheral or some heuristic methods. Finally, a referenced calibrated sun sensor is evaluated in a known angular maneuver by the developed simulator. Comparing the known angular maneuver to the measured angles shows the adequate accuracy of the implemented simulator in order to test and calibration of the analog sun sensor. Considering the specification of the produced beams, it seems that digital sun sensor can also be calibrated.