Shape Measurement of Large Structures in Space: Experiments

A method to reconstruct the shape of a large planar structure in space is introduced and demonstrated through a lab-scale experiment. Lightweight sun sensors are distributed on the structure to measure local angles relative to the sun. The methodology to integrate the measured angles into the shape...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2018 5th IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for AeroSpace (MetroAeroSpace) pp. 581 - 584
Main Authors Talon, Thibaud, Pellegrino, Sergio
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.06.2018
Subjects
antenna array
Antenna arrays
Antenna measurements
Calibration
experiment
laboratory
measurement
reconstruction
sail
sensor
Sensors
Shape
Shape measurement
solar
structure
Sun
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Summary:A method to reconstruct the shape of a large planar structure in space is introduced and demonstrated through a lab-scale experiment. Lightweight sun sensors are distributed on the structure to measure local angles relative to the sun. The methodology to integrate the measured angles into the shape of the structure, based on a decomposition of the shape into basis functions is introduced. This methodology has been implemented on a lab-scale experiment. The design of the sensors is based on a 4 pixel pinhole camera. The calibration method for these sensors is presented as well as the techniques to integrate and communicate with them. A 1.2 m by 20 cm structure was designed and populated with sensors to show the performance of an integrated system. Preliminary results show an accuracy of 1 mm RMS on the shape reconstruction of this structure.
ISSN:2575-7490
DOI:10.1109/MetroAeroSpace.2018.8453578