A Six Degree-of-Freedom Spacecraft Dynamics Simulator for Formation Control Research

Abstract

This paper presents a new six-degree-of-freedom robotic spacecraft simulator, the Multi-Spacecraft Testbed for Autonomy Research (M-STAR), for testing formation guidance, relative navigation, and control algorithms. The simulator dynamics are governed by five degrees of frictionless translational and rotational air-bearing motion and one degree of kinematic motion in the gravity direction with flight-like actuators, in a 1-g environment. M-STAR is designed to be modular and accommodates 3-DOF, 4-DOF, 5-DOF, and 6-DOF operation with minimal mechanical modifications. The simulator is modelled as a 3-D pendulum on a floating platform with sixteen thrusters and four reaction wheels as on-board actuators. Based on this plant model, a nonlinear hierarchical control law is proposed for position and attitude trajectory tracking. A weighted generalized pseudo-inverse strategy for control allocation to map control inputs to actuator inputs is discussed. The thruster actuation model for mapping smooth allocated input to non-smooth actuator input that achieves equivalent performance is derived. The control law, allocation scheme, and thruster model are tested on the simulator for real-time position tracking control using a Robot Operating System (ROS) based software framework.