Design of a Hypergravity Simulation Platform with Speed and Axis Stability Control Systems

Plant growth in space is imperative for food consumption by astronauts during long term space missions. These plants are being grown in bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS), designed to support life while withstanding space conditions. Its research is still commonly done in space stations, and there are still limited studies available about ground-based BLSS. One of the dominantly experienced conditions during space missions is the varied gravity levels such as hypergravity, where gravitational accelerations are higher than that of Planet Earth. Hypergravity is usually simulated through centrifuges that rotate at high speeds. However, no studies have focused yet on providing control systems for more stable simulations of these rotational speeds. Hence, this study designed a hypergravity platform speed and axis control system (HPSACS) and characterized it in terms of maximum motor speed, torque, and sensor placements. The speed control system contains an in-depth design and elucidation with graphs for a transfer function to control the speed output of the motor, while the axis stability control system was analyzed in terms of its components and working principle. After all necessary calculations and graphing, the results have shown that the transfer function’s graph was undamped and the most suitable for the speed stability system is the step input with I compensation, s
⁻¹
, for the elimination of steady-state error and consistent amplitude in the graph simulation.