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Optimal Attitude Control Management for a Cubesat

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Date Issued:
2011
Abstract/Description:
CubeSats have become popular among universities, research organizations, and government agencies due to their low cost, small size, and light weight. Their standardized configurations further reduce the development time and ensure more frequent launch opportunities. Early cubesat missions focused on hardware validation and simple communication missions, with little requirement for pointing accuracy. Most of these used magnetic torque rods or coils for attitude stabilization. However, the intrinsic problems associated with magnetictorque systems, such as the lack of three-axis control and low pointing accuracy, make them unsuitable for more advanced missions such as detailed imaging and on-orbit inspection. Three-axis control in a cubesat can be achieved by combining magnetic torque coils with other devices such as thrusters, but the lifetime is limited by the fuel source onboard. To maximize the missionlifetime, a fast attitude control management algorithm that could optimally manage the usage of the magnetic and thruster torques is desirable. Therefore, a recently developed method, the B-Spline-augmented virtual motion camouflage, is presented in this defense to solve the problem. This approach provides results which are very close to those obtained through other popular nonlinear constrained optimal control methods with a significantly reduced computational time.Simulation results are presented to validate the capabilities of the method in this application.
Title: Optimal Attitude Control Management for a Cubesat.
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Name(s): Develle, Michael, Author
Xu, Yunjun, Committee Chair
Lin, Kuo-Chi, Committee Member
Chew, Phyekeng, Committee Member
, Committee Member
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2011
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: CubeSats have become popular among universities, research organizations, and government agencies due to their low cost, small size, and light weight. Their standardized configurations further reduce the development time and ensure more frequent launch opportunities. Early cubesat missions focused on hardware validation and simple communication missions, with little requirement for pointing accuracy. Most of these used magnetic torque rods or coils for attitude stabilization. However, the intrinsic problems associated with magnetictorque systems, such as the lack of three-axis control and low pointing accuracy, make them unsuitable for more advanced missions such as detailed imaging and on-orbit inspection. Three-axis control in a cubesat can be achieved by combining magnetic torque coils with other devices such as thrusters, but the lifetime is limited by the fuel source onboard. To maximize the missionlifetime, a fast attitude control management algorithm that could optimally manage the usage of the magnetic and thruster torques is desirable. Therefore, a recently developed method, the B-Spline-augmented virtual motion camouflage, is presented in this defense to solve the problem. This approach provides results which are very close to those obtained through other popular nonlinear constrained optimal control methods with a significantly reduced computational time.Simulation results are presented to validate the capabilities of the method in this application.
Identifier: CFE0004099 (IID), ucf:49102 (fedora)
Note(s): 2011-12-01
M.S.A.E.
Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering
Masters
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): CubeSat -- attitude control -- optimal control -- spacecraft -- virtual motion camouflage
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004099
Restrictions on Access: public 2011-12-15
Host Institution: UCF

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