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Attitude Determination and Control System

Attitude Detemination and Control System sharing the PCB with on-board computer.

The purpose of the Attitude Determination and Control System for AAUSAT-II is to provide initial stablisation of the spacecraft after orbit insertion and to enable fine-pointing and attitude tracking for scientific experiments. The system consist of a number of sensors and actuator being controlled on a low level by an embedded PIC processor which interfaces to other on-board computer via a CAN bus. A process on the on-board computer implements the filtering and control algorithms required to perform the control of the satellite.

Main features of the ADCS system:

  • Active 3-axis magnetic stabalisation using magnetorquers
  • Active 3-axis fine poiting using 3 momentum wheels
  • Precision attitude determination using sensor fusion

Attitude actuators:

  • 3 magnetorquer flat coils
  • 3 brass momentum wheels driven by Maxon metal brush motors
Magnetorquer mounted on the inside of one of teh 6 aluminium skins of the satellite. Momentum wheel with its custom bracket and the Maxon metal brush D motor.

Attitude sensors:

  • 3-axis magnetometer from Honeywell
  • 6 rate-gyro chips from Analog Devices
  • 6 sun sensor using photo diodes
Honeywell 3-axis magnetometer mounted on the ADDDS main PCB. Sidepanel PCB with one Gyro. There is a sun sensor on the opposite side of the board. Each of the six spacecraft sides has a panel like this mounted on the inside.

Current state and schedule

Current state:

  • Engineering main PCB fully tested
  • Engineering gyro/sun sensor PCB being tested
  • Flight Candidate 1 PCBs purchased


Next step:

  • Flight Candidate 1 PCB assembly and test

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