A comparative study of CMG and FMC actuators for Nano satellite attitude control system-pyramidal configuration

In this paper, nonlinear attitude model of a satellite with pyramid Control Moment Gyros (CMG) and other with pyramid Fluid Momentum Controller (FMC) is developed. A comparative study between pyramidal cluster of FMC and CMG is conducted. This comparison is based on simulation of attitude control system a Nano satellite with two different actuators. For comparison purposes, a sliding mode controller based on modified Rodriguez parameters is considered for attitude control system. The efficiency of maneuvers, agility, power consumption, mass and capability of combination actuators have been compared for two different actuators. Results show that both systems successfully conducted different agile maneuvers and have a good performance in controller against disturbance. In same power consumption, capacity of CMG torque generation is more than FMC actuators.