Identification Of inertia Tensor Using Semi-Spherical Air Bearing Satellite Simulator Based on a Robust Least Squares Method

In this paper a method for online identification of moment of inertia tensor parameters of bodies based on recursive least squares method, with a 3 axis reaction wheel air bearing satellite simulator is presented. Dynamics of simulator is implemented in special manner. The only available sensor is a three axes rate gyro which measures the angular velocity of satellite in the body coordinate system. Due to existence of noise in this sensor, the regressor matrix that used in least squares method is not deterministic. So in this case, the classic least squares method cannot be utilized, and its convergence is not guaranteed. For solving this problem, a modified least squares method with robust scheme is presented and its stability is proved. Simulation Results have proved the success of this method in identification of inertia tensors using an air-bearing simulator.