Publication

SwissCube Inertial Wheel Assembly Electronics

2010
Student Projects

Abstract

The overall goal is the development of a new control software for the inertial wheel assembly of the SwissCube project. SwissCube is an educational project of several Swiss universities and technical colleges under the supervision of the Space Center of EPFL1. The SwissCube is a pico-satellite which respects the CubeSat standard and is almost entirely built by students from the different participating universities. The inertial wheel assembly (IWA) is composed of the IWA motor, the inertial wheel itself and the command electronics. The system fulfills two functions at the same time: • Stabilization of the spatial orientation of the satellite using the gyroscopic effect (used as a momentum wheel) • Controlled rotation of the satellite around the axis of rotation of the IWA for compensation of in-orbit perturbations as well as reorientation (reaction wheel mode)

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/4e836077-9f5f-4e84-9629-8c4e8ad8c88a

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2010
Student Projects

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/4e836077-9f5f-4e84-9629-8c4e8ad8c88a

About this result

Related concepts (28)

Gyroscope

A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος gŷros, "round" and σκοπέω skopéō, "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotation (spin axis) is free to assume any orientation by itself. When rotating, the orientation of this axis is unaffected by tilting or rotation of the mounting, according to the conservation of angular momentum.

Inertial measurement unit

An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometers. When the magnetometer is included, IMUs are referred to as IMMUs. IMUs are typically used to maneuver modern vehicles including motorcycles, missiles, aircraft (an attitude and heading reference system), including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), among many others, and spacecraft, including satellites and landers.

Ring laser gyroscope

A ring laser gyroscope (RLG) consists of a ring laser having two independent counter-propagating resonant modes over the same path; the difference in phase is used to detect rotation. It operates on the principle of the Sagnac effect which shifts the nulls of the internal standing wave pattern in response to angular rotation. Interference between the counter-propagating beams, observed externally, results in motion of the standing wave pattern, and thus indicates rotation.

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SwissCube Inertial Wheel Assembly Electronics

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