Spacecraft Dynamics and Control Simulation System Integrated with a Variable Speed Control Moment Gyroscope

Jaehyun Jin and Dongguk Kim

AbstractThe authors introduce a simulation system for spacecraft dynamics and control developed by LabVIEW program. The system has a function to interface with hardware. A variable-speed CMG has been considered as an actuator. Sensors such as a magnetic compass and gyros are adopted. This simulation system has been developed for the purpose of education and research. Systems engineering process also has been used to design the system.

I. INTRODUCTION

ontrol moment gyroscopes (CMGs) have been studied for a long time after those were used in the Skylab in the mid 1960s. There are several versions of CMGs: single-gimbal, double-gimbal, and variable speed. Nowadays, variable speed CMGs (VCMGs) are becoming research topics because of their advantages. A VCMG can generate two independent torques and it can store energy by increasing the wheels rotating speed [1-3]. Here, the authors are interested in the attitude control problem of a spacecraft using SVCMG (Single-gimbal, Variable-speed CMG) and we have developed a SVCMG for research and education. The SVCMG is integrated with a simulation system for spacecraft dynamics and control. The simulation system has been developed by LabVIEW program. LabVIEW is a useful tool to simulate dynamical systems such as spacecrafts. It also easily interfaces with hardware and outputs real signals. A computer simulation is a very useful tool for engineering designs and verification. It saves lots of time, money, and effort. There are many different methods and models depending on purposes. In the field of satellite development, it also has been used for long time [4, 5]. To test a developed simulation system, we have considered an interesting scenario. A spacecraft has one SVCMG for attitude control. This is an underactuted one that has insufficient control. Some notable papers and references therein are useful to understand this issue [6-8]. The control strategy depends on the amount of the angular momentum of a spacecraft. If the total angular momentum of a spacecraft is null, arbitrary attitude can be reached by three consecutive
Manuscript received October 11, 2011. This work was supported by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute for the purpose of educating and nurturing students. Jaehyun Jin is with the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Sunchon National University, Jeonnam, Korea (phone: 82-61-750-3827; fax: 82-61-750-3820; e-mail: donworry@sunchon.ac.kr). Dongguk Kim is an undergraduate student of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Sunchon National University. (email: 0489fhfl@naver.com).

rotations about two axes [8]. If not, arbitrary attitude is not always possible due to the conservation of the angular momentum. For a spacecraft using one SVCMG with non-null angular momentum, a Lyapunov-based control method was presented to stabilize the angular speeds in [9]. The authors of [10] advanced a step further: a certain face of a spacecraft, on which important apparatus might be installed, was controlled to aim at a target point on the assumption that a line-of-sight control was sufficient for a given mission or communication. The authors are interested in the underactuated problem for spacecraft. We have applied the backstepping method to design a controller. In this paper, the authors have tested the simulation system with a SVCMG. For these, the dynamic equations of an underactuted spacecraft are introduced first. Then, the developed simulation system is presented.

II. TARGET SPACECRAFT AND OBJECTIVES

A. Preliminary Dynamics A spacecraft with a SVCMG is considered. The unit vectors are defined in Figure 1. The wheel rotates about the unit vector c1 and the gimbal turns about the unit vector c 3 . The unit vectors b 3 and c 3 are assumed to be parallel to each other and the gimbal angle g is the angle between b1 and c1 .

c2

ZB
b3 b1 b2

c3

g
b2 c2

g
b1 c1

c1

XB

YB

Fig. 1. Definition of coordinate frames

The Euler angle representation is used: yaw angle y, the pitch angle q, and the roll angle f. The differential equation of the 3-2-1 rotational sequence (yaw pitch roll) is given as:

method, the proposed control method is.

& f 1 sin f tan q & cos f q = 0 y 0 sin f / cos q & cos f tan q w1 - sin f w 2 cos f / cos q w3

(1)

The total angular momentum h is assumed non-null. It is conserved or constant with respect to the inertia frame.
h = J + J G g& c 3 + JW Wc1 0

B. Attitude Loop Design The direction of the plane YB-ZB is defined by only two Euler angles, pitch and yaw. With the assumption that the desired pitch angle q d and yaw angle y d are constant, a Lyapunov candidate function is selected as:
V1 = 1 2 2 eq + ey 2

(2)

(9)

J = diag[J1 , J 2 , J 3 ] is the inertia matrix of the spacecraft including the wheel and gimbal, JW is the moment of inertia of the wheel about its rotating axis c1 , and JG is the moment of
inertia of the wheel and gimbal about c 3 . W is the wheel speed. Since the second term in (2) is small, it is neglected for the development of a control method. However, it is included in numerical simulations. The dynamic equations are developed.
h1 J1w1 + J W W cos g h = h2 = J 2w 2 + J W W sin g h3 J 3w3
& h + h = 0

where eq = q d - q and ey = y d - y . From the condition

& that V1 < 0 , the following can be obtained.

& & q = K Pq eq , y = K Py ey

(10)

This is a kind of P control and the parameter, KP, determine the characteristics of convergence. By matching (10) to (1), we obtain the following desired angular speed.
w 2,d cos f = w3,d - sin f sin f cos q K Pq eq cos f cos q K Py ey

(3) (4) (11)

& & = J -1 - h - J W Wg&c 2 - J W Wc1

(5) C. Speed Loop Design Speed loop calculates control inputs for the desired angular speeds. From (7), it is clear that one angular speed, w 2 , is controlled directly by inputs but the other angular speed, w3 , is not. It has to be controlled indirectly. A Lyapunov candidate function is selected as:
V2 = V1 + 1 2 2 ew 2 + ew 3 2

The gimbal angle rate and the wheel acceleration are the sources of reaction torques. So they are considered as control inputs.
& g& = u1 , W = u 2

(6)

Then the dynamic equation with respect to the body frame can be rewritten as:
& w1 = & w2 = & w3 = J 2 - J3 J J w 2w3 + W Ww3 sg + W v1 J1 J1 J1 J 3 - J1 J J w1w3 - W Ww3cg + W v2 J2 J2 J2 J J1 - J 2 w1w 2 - W W(w1 sin g - w 2 cos g ) J3 J3
v1 W sin g = v2 - W cos g - cos g u1 - sin g u 2

(12)

where ewj = w j ,d - w j . To stabilize w1 , we select another (7) Lyapunov candidate function as:
1 2 V3 = V2 + ew1 2

(13)

(8)

& From the condition that V3 < 0 , the desired angular speed,

w1,d is obtained as:

w1, d = l3 J 3 (w3, d - w3 ) - J W w 2 Wcg ( J1 - J 2 )w 2 - J W Wsg

The objective considered in this paper is to control the directions of the axes of a spacecraft. For the direction of the XB axis, pitch (q) and yaw (y) should be controlled. The proposed control method consists of two loops: attitude loop and angular speed loop. The attitude loop calculates desired angular speeds leading a spacecraft to a desired attitude. The angular speed loop controls a spacecraft to follow the calculated desired speeds. By the backstepping

(14)

The final form of the real control inputs u1 and u 2 are given as:

 u1 1 sg = u 2 J W W - Wcg

- cg J1l1ew1 - (J 2 - J 3 )w 2w3 - J W Ww3 sg - Wsg J 2 l2 ew 2 - (J 3 - J1 )w1w3 + J W Ww3 cg

- Interfacing between PCs - Interfacing Hardware (sensors, motors) C. Physical Architecture The architecture of a designed physical system is shown in Figure 2. The core of the system is a LabVIEW program which can simulates the dynamics of a spacecraft and interface with hardware such as sensors and actuators.

(15)

III. SYSTEM ENGINEERING PROCESS FOR SIMULATION SYSTEM A. Requirements Analysis The requirements for simulation systems that have been obtained through the survey of references are analyzed and divided into categories: operation and system. Operational requirements focus on how the system works and system requirements on what the system is composed of. Those are summarized as the following table:
TABLE I Requirements for the simulation system

Spacecraft Dynamics Sensors/ Actuators

LabVIEW

AD/DA Motion Board

Gyros SVCMG

Environment (Disturbances)

Fig. 2. The physical architecture of a simulation system.

Operational Requirements
Rigid body dynamic simulation Satellite parameters setting - mass, inertia of moment, parameter uncertainties - state initialization: attitude, angular speed, wheel speed Sensors/actuators setting - gyro drift, noises, scale factors, Control parameters setting - Gain setting for controllers - Linear/nonlinear control law Environment modeling - Solar pressure, gravitational variation, aerodynamic force,

D. Single-gimbal Variable-speed CMG Figure 3 shows an initial prototype which was developed during a conceptual design stage. The normal power of the gimbal motor was 30W.

System Requirements
Satellite dynamics simulation on PC 1 and Controller simulation on PC 2/Micro-computer DAQ connected Extensibility, flexibility Upgrade to HILS and multiple satellites Hardware adaptability (gyros, attitude sensors, actuators, motors, payloads(camera), )

Fig. 3 The previous version of CMG.

B. Functional Architecture From the requirements analysis, the following functions have been derived Dynamic Simulation - Satellite dynamic modeling - Controller modeling - Components modeling (sensors, actuators) - Environment modeling (disturbances modeling) User Interface - Parameter inputs - Simulation scenarios generation - Result outputs Data Transfer - Disturbances inputs (external sources) to Satellite - Control inputs (external sources) to Satellite - Satellite states output to Controller or DA

A new prototype has been designed and developed as shown in Figure 4 and 5.

Fig. 4. The variable-speed CMG.

Fig. 8. Block diagram of kinematics and dynamics

Fig. 5. New version of CMG.

There are two servo motors controlled by the simulation program. One is for the wheel and another for the gimbal. Power and signal wires are connected through a slip ring so that any rotation of the gimbal is permitted.

Fig. 9. Block diagram of control algorithm

IV. LABVIEW PROGRAM Figure 6 shows the main front panel for parameter inputs and results output. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method is used to integrate Equations (1) and (5). Figure 7 is the block diagram for the main routine and Figures 8 is the block diagram of the kinematic and dynamic equations of Equations (1) and (5). Figure 9 is the block diagram of Equation (15).

V. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, the authors have presented a program for spacecraft dynamic simulation and control, which have been coded by LabVIEW. As further studies, motor control loop design and hardware-coupled tests will be performed. This system will be used for education and research.

REFERENCES
[1] Richie, D., Lappas, V., and Bong, W., Practical steering law for small satellite energy storage and attitude control, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol.32, No.6, 2009, pp.1898-1911. [2] Yoon, H., and Tsiotras, P., Spacecraft adaptive attitude and power tracking with variable speed control moment gyroscopes, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol.25, No.6, 2002, pp.1081-1090. [3] Yoon, H., and Tsiotras, P., Singularity analysis of variable-speed control moment gyros, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol.27, No.3, 2004, pp.374-386. [4] S. Cho, W. Lee, and J. Kim, Development of a generalized spacecraft simulator, Proc. of the 2003 Fall Conference of KSAS, pp.263-266, 2003. [5] H. Lee, J. Lee, and H. Bang, A study on GUI based spacecraft S/W simulator, Proc. of the 2003 Spring Conference of KSAS, pp.559-562, 2003. [6] Crouch, E., Spacecraft attitude control and stabilization: Applications of geometric control theory to rigid body models, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol.29, No.4, 1984, pp.321-331. [7] Kim, S., and Kim, Y., Spin-axis stabilization of a rigid spacecraft using two reaction wheels, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol.24, No.5, 2001, pp.1046-1049. [8] Krishnan, H., McClamroch, N., and Reyhanoglu, M., Attitude stabilization of a rigid spacecraft using two momentum wheel actuators, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1995, pp.256-263. [9] Marshall, A., and Tsiotras, P., Spacecraft angular velocity stabilization using a single-gimbal variable speed control moment gyro, AIAA Paper 03-5654, 2003. [10] Yoon, H., and Tsiotras, P., Spacecraft line-of-sight control using a single variable speed control moment gyro, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol.29, No.6, 2006, pp.1295-1308.

Fig. 6. Front panel of the main routine

Fig. 7. Block diagram of the main routine