Development of a Hardware-in-the-loop Simulator for Spacecraft Attitude Control Using Thrusters

In this study, a Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulator using thrusters is developed to validate the spacecraft attitude system. To control the attitude of the simulator, eight cold gas thrusters are aligned with roll, pitch and yaw axis. Also linear actuators are applied to the HIL simulator for automatic mass balancing to compensate the center of mass offset from the center of rotation. The HIL simulator consists of an embedded computer (Onboard PC) for simulator system control, a wireless adapter for wireless network, a rate gyro sensor to measure 3-axis attitude of the simulator, an inclinometer to measure horizontal attitude, and a battery set to supply power for the simulator independently. For the performance test of the HIL simulator, a bang-bang controller and Pulse-Width Pulse-Frequency (PWPF) modulator are evaluated successfully. The maneuver of 68 deg. in yaw axis is tested for the comparison of the both controllers. The settling time of the bang -bang controller is faster than that of the PWPF modulator by six seconds in the experiment. The required fuel of the PWPF modulator is used as much as 51% of bang-bang controller in the experiment. Overall, the HIL simulator is appropriately developed to validate the control algorithms using thrusters.