A Hardware Implementation of Flexible Attitude Determination and Control System for Two-Axis-Stabilized CubeSat

This paper presents a hardware implementation of flexible and low-cost attitude determination and control system (ADCS) for two-axis-stabilized CubeSat. As small satellite missions are increasing, the CubeSat requires precise ADCS with attitude drift adjustment. This attitude drift if not properly compensated, will cause a slow attitude information loss as the error in attitude rises between the actual and estimated signals. The proposed ADCS comprises two steps; the attitude determination which estimates the current CubeSat's attitude and a novel simplified intelligent proportional-integral control algorithm that accurately adjusts the attitude. The control algorithm is based on the multi degree-of-freedom controller concept and has no controller gains parameters. The proposed ADCS employs sun sensor, magnetometer, and a micro-electro-mechanical gyroscope sensor to correct the attitude drift by offering a comparative attitude that is utilized for updating the estimated attitude delivered to the Kalman filter for determining the CubeSat's attitude and angular velocity. The ADCS model verification and validation are accomplished via Matlab/Simulink and hardware implementation. A comparison with other ADCS techniques is presented. The ADCS simulated model demonstrates precision results with error of less than 0.1 degrees.