Simulation, Test and Verification of SHEFEX-2

Hybrid Navigation System

Dr. Stephan Theil (DLR Institute of Space Systems, Bremen, Germany)

Dr. Andreas Himmler (dSPACE GmbH Paderborn, Germany)
Stephen Steffes, Malak Samaan and Michael Conradt
(DLR Institute of Space Systems, Bremen)

Slide 1
SHEFEX2

Slide 2
HNS Motivation

Some passenger experiments require attitude accuracy of 0.17° at entry

Onboard navigation system
Equipped with decoupled GPS and IMU
IMU (ISI DMARS-R) can achieve 0.3° alignment accuracy
High vibrations cause the INS to drift 3° before entry

Hybrid navigation system is developed to meet the needs of the

passenger experiments by fusing GPS, IMU and Star Tracker
measurements

Slide 3
Flight
Profile

Slide 4
Sensors

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)

iIMU-FCAI-MDS
3 fiber optical gyros and
3 servo-accelerometers
Gyro: 1°/hr bias, 0.03°/√hr
Accel: 2mg bias, 50μg/√Hz
GPS Receiver
Phoenix-HD receiver
PVT Accuracy: 2-50m, 0.05m/s
Star Tracker (STR)
Developed by DLR Bremen
3-axis attitude accuracy: 0.1°

Slide 5
Slide 6
 Hybrid Navigation System Concept
Attitude @2Hz
STR
Trigger @2Hz
Pos, Vel, Time @1Hz
GPS
Pos, Vel @1Hz Acquisition
Aiding
PPS

Internal
KF Update
Clock
Trigger @500Hz Δt @500Hz
GPS, STR Times

Pos, Vel, Att

ΔV, Δθ @500Hz State
IMU Integration
Δt, ΔV, Δθ
KF
Error estimates
Propagate
Navigation Filter

Navigation Computer
Nav solution

Slide 7
Software Simulation

Purpose: test functionality, measure system performance, stress the

system, debug
MATLAB®/Simulink® is an excellent simulation tool and provides good
visibility of models and flight code

Simulation Setup
Using nominal flight dynamics from rocket developer
Contains high fidelity models of IMU, GPS and Star Tracker
Generic models of IMU and Star Tracker with instrument specific
parameters
GPS model specifically designed to model Phoenix-HD
Flight software embedded with s-function

Slide 8
Hardware-In-the-Loop Testing

Purpose: test interfaces, test unmodeled instrument details, use real

time, debug
dSPACE allows model development using Simulink, provides hardware
API, range of hardware interfaces
ControlDesk provides visibility of dSPACE simulation

Hardware-In-the-Loop Setup
Spirent GSS7700 simulates analog GPS antenna input
3-axis rotation table simulates flight rotations for IMU
Jenoptik Optical Sky Stimulator provides images for star tracker camera

Hardware testing is done in 4 phases

Progressively swapping software model for flight hardware

Slide 9
dSPACE

HNS hardware-in-the-loop setup:

Main processor board (DS1006)
Controls mission and instrument simulations
Synchronizes to external trigger
Digital interface board (DS2202)
Interface to external TTL signals
Serial interface board (DS4201)
Serial interface for all sensor models
Ethernet interface board (DS4504)
Remote trajectory to Spirent GPS simulator
Scramnet interface board (DS4503)
Rotation table control

Slide 10
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Slide 14
Benefits of Using dSPACE

Modular system for all sizes of hardware-in-the-loop systems

Product range: from component test systems
up to turn-key integration test systems
Based on full range of product-level components
Any customer-specific solutions, if required
Easy to configure, upgrade and adapt
Worldwide support by local engineers in major countries

Slide 15
Working with dSPACE
Real-Time Interface – RTI

Automatic implementation of MATLAB®/Simulink®/Stateflow®

models on dSPACE hardware
Graphical configuration of all I/O interfaces
in the Simulink® block diagram
Automatic real-time code generation from the block diagram
and download to the dSPACE prototyping hardware
Easy and safe to use due to
automatic consistency checks

Slide 16
Working with dSPACE: ControlDesk
Managing and Instrumenting Experiments

Creation of virtual instrument panels by drag & drop

Real-time data capture and online parameter tuning
Graphical experiment and hardware management
Easy access to all model variables

Slide 17
Software Simulation Results

Quick simulation development due to Matlab/Simulink heritage

Models were kept modular to easily reuse in dSPACE simulation
Navigation flight code wrapped in s-function and seamlessly integrated
On-going development and testing

Initial software performance results:

Slide 18
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Slide 21
Hardware-In-the-Loop Development

Quick dSPACE simulation development due to model reuse

Minor problems synchronizing dSPACE with Spirent
Custom software needed for Optical Sky Simulator to remotely control
image in real time
Rotation table control not yet implemented

HNS hardware interface software still under development

Slide 22
Conclusions & Outlook

Status:
On-going H/W integration and testing
H/W delivery in June 2010
Launch expected in winter 2011
Expected results:
Confirmation of predicted performance
Recorded flight data for further development
Goal:
Develop autonomous Hybrid Navigation System for sounding
rockets, hypersonic flight and space transportation systems

Slide 23