Tri-Axial Satellite Simulator with combinatorial Actuators

This article describes the details in design and development of a tri-axial dumbbell-style satellite attitude dynamics simulator with the computer-base simulation procedure and the results of actual maneuvers. This simulator is used to validate control algorithms, improve novel control methods, verify the operation of available actuators or sensors and exhibit the fundamentals of attitude dynamics to students or experts. The facility includes a variety of subsystems such as: spherical air-bearing, reaction wheels, cold-gas propulsion subsystem, inertial measurement unit, power-supply unit, on-board processor and semi automatic mass balancing mechanism that have been designed and developed at Space Research Laboratory at K. N. Toosi University of Technology. The overall design of this system was pretty complicated especially when considering the mission requirements, operating constraints and functional limitations imposed by the groundbased simulation, thus, an accurate design procedure for each subsystem has been deployed and will present in this article.