Low-cost Test System for 1U CubeSat Attitude Control with Reaction Wheels

CubeSat development is becoming one of the most important research topics due to the growing interest of American countries in developing their aerospace technology. The main aim of this work is to simulate a 1U CubeSat Dynamics and develop a test system to allow students to probe their attitude control algorithms. The test system has four parts: a ball-type Dyson sphere air bearing, a Prototype of a CubeSat that includes reaction wheels as actuators, an Onboard computer based on an ARM Cortex M4 TM4C123G, and a PC Software interface. In its preliminary stages, the system allows testing attitude control algorithms for small Euler Angles and monitors reaction wheel parameters such as rates and currents. For the 1U CubeSat simulation, a linear mathematical model, a PID attitude controller, and a PID torque controller are proposed guidelines for attitude control algorithm designs.