A Low-speed, Low-acceleration Controller for Cost-effective Reaction-wheels

Design, Simulation & Implementation

Master Thesis (2021)
Author(s)

W.A. Lopes (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Contributor(s)

AJ van Genderen – Mentor (TU Delft - Computer Engineering)

H. Hassan HosseinNia – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechatronic Systems Design)

Bert Monna – Coach (Hyperion Technologies)

Stephan Wong – Coach (TU Delft - Computer Engineering)

Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Copyright
© 2021 Wilfred Lopes
More Info
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Publication Year
2021
Language
English
Copyright
© 2021 Wilfred Lopes
Graduation Date
17-12-2021
Awarding Institution
Delft University of Technology
Programme
['Computer Engineering', 'Electrical Engineering | Embedded Systems']
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
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Abstract

With the requirements for CubeSats increasing, a push towards utilizing high­performance equipment has
never been greater. Incorporating these equipment in an environment that is cost­, space­ and
power­constrained, is challenging. Simultaneously, high­performance equipment require high
pointing­accuracy and low­jitter. This thesis proposes the use of a cost­effective reaction­wheel, which
utilizes three hall­sensors for accurate attitude­control. Additionally, the requirements state that the
reaction­wheel operates in the low­speed region, whilst tracking low­acceleration commands. For this, a
controller­structure is designed, simulated & implemented in order to provide accurate angular­velocity
estimates at a constant rate. Whilst the angular­velocity estimates are within 1% of the measurements, the
angular­acceleration tracking performance relies greatly on the noise of the reaction­wheel torque­friction.
Nonetheless, the angular­acceleration mean error was found to be 0.005 RPM/s, with a variance of 0.3
RPM/s on a 0.01 RPM/s reference

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