10.2514/6.2019-0941">
 

Dynamic mass balancing of an attitude control test platform

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-7-2019

Abstract

Ground-based spacecraft emulators provide an accessible and necessary platform for testing and evaluating control systems. The Attitude Control System Proving Ground (ACSPG) at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) allows for testing and verifying the performance of attitude control systems. Through the use of an air bearing, the near frictionless environment is replicated, but gravitational torques are still prevalent. Gravitational torques, caused by the distance between the center of rotation (COR) and the center of mass (COM) of the simulator results in unwanted gravitational torques, causing a tilting and unbalanced platform. Developing an automated system to precisely co-locate the COR and the COM will reduce said torques. This research demonstrates two control techniques to improve the current system balancing procedures: a non-linear adaptive control validated with three primary scenarios, demonstrating an ability to reduce angular velocities to zero and a least squares estimation method that estimates the offset between the COM and COR and is validated with two tests of varying lengths, estimating the offset within 0.5%.

Comments

This conference paper is published by AIAA and is available by subscription or purchase at the DOI link below.

Alternative paper title: Dynamic Mass Balancing of a Spacecraft Test Platform

Source Publication

AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum

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