Conceptual design of a low-cost real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulator for satellite attitude control system

Integration of flight hardware with real-time simulation increases satellite attitude control system (ACS) reliability by providing greater test coverage through end-to-end testing in a realistic test environment. In this paper, a compound hardware and software simulator has been designed for evaluation and testing of the spacecraft ACS, placing emphasis on the real-time hardware-in-loop (RTHIL) architecture. The environment comprises both real-time control and data acquisition applications on a network of ACS hardware, the MATLAB Real-Time Workshop, and a PCI device to join the hardware and software units. Moreover, a graphical 3D simulator has been designed, enabling the designers and researchers to intuitively analyze the quality of spacecraft maneuvers. Finally, an ad hoc attitude-stabilizing control law for magnetic actuated satellites has been proposed and implemented in the proposed environment and the efficiency, correctness, and robustness of this control law have been verified using RTHIL simulation results.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Satellite attitude control, satellite compound simulator, real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulation

Conceptual design of a low-cost real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulator for satellite attitude control system

Keywords:

Satellite attitude control, satellite compound simulator, real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulation,

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apparently originated from the fact that the magnetic coils are saturated in the worst-case simulation as depicted
in Figure 12 for a long time. However, the important point is that the closed-loop asymptotic stability of both
cases (i.e. normal and worst cases) is preserved. As shown in Figures 11 and 15, this point is also verified in
terms of the system’s total energies, which are uniformly decreasing for both cases.
Table Initial conditions of normal- and worst-case for RTHIL simulations. Worst case [ ωco(t = 0)
deg) [Normal case1.5]T s 1.5 1.5 5.7 −5.7 5.7
Finally, we emphasize that the proposed RTHIL architecture is not restricted to the attitude detumbling
verification. As discussed in Section 3, the proposed RTHIL simulator provides full feedback from both attitude
angle and angular velocity. Accordingly, this architecture can be used for other purposes and other control
schemes (e.g., attitude maneuver) taking the constraints given in Tables 1–3 into account. 5. Conclusion
The main objective of this paper was designing a low-cost, realistic, and easily constructed test environment for
analysis and design of an ACS. Toward this aim, a mixed hardware and software simulator were designed. Using
this simulator, real-time end-to-end simulations can be done. As an experimental result, a heuristic globally
asymptotically stabilizing control law recently developed by the authors was implemented and analyzed in the
proposed RTHIL test-bed. The RTHIL simulation results confirmed the admissible operation of the proposed
control law. Finally, the designed 3D graphical simulator (ZNU-SatSim) provides a visual platform for intuitive
qualification of the attitude maneuvers.
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