A single-axis pointing magnetic control method for microsatellite

• Published in: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA) pp. 671 - 674
• Main Authors: Yimin Kou, Chun Li, Qin Yuan, Yanbo Ji, Yingchun Zhang
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.08.2016
• Subjects: Acceleration; active magnetic control; Angular velocity; Magnetic moments; Magnetomechanical effects; microsatellite; Orbits; Satellites; single-axis pointing; spatial geometric analysis; Torque
• DOI: 10.1109/ICInfA.2016.7831904

To meet the requirements of single-axis pointing in safety modes and other specific tasks of microsatellites, this paper presents a single-axis pointing magnetic control method. This method comprises the following steps: First, use a spatial geometric analysis method to expand the selection range of the rotation axis to an axis plane and then obtain the angular acceleration plane through affine transformation by the inertia matrix. Next, conduct steering control along the intersection of the angular acceleration plane and the axis plane, and meanwhile conduct speed damping control simultaneously in the angular acceleration plane in order to achieve precise single-axis pointing. Compared with traditional methods, the advantages of this method include: undesirable disturbance magnetic torque is hardly generated; it is hardly restricted by the shape and inclination of the orbit; the nondiagonal elements of the inertia matrix are not required to be zero. In the simulation, the method successfully makes a microsatellite point its Z-axis to the ground precisely, which verifies the effectiveness of it.