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Design and implementation of active Attitude Determination and Control

Subsystem for ISRASAT1 cube satellite

Conference Paper · January 2017

DOI: 10.1109/ICCCCEE.2017.7867656

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 2017 International Conference on Communication, Control, Computing and Electronics Engineering (ICCCCEE), Sudan

Design and Implementation of Active Attitude

Determination and Control Subsystem for ISRASAT1
Cube Satellite
Moutaman Mirghani Daffalla Asia Saeed Kajo Ahmed TagElsir
Institute of Space Research and Institute of Space Research and Institute of Space Research and
Aerospace Aerospace Aerospace
Khartoum, Sudan Khartoum, Sudan Khartoum, Sudan
moutaman@isra.sd asiakajo11@gmail.com ahmad.taj.sir.128@gmail.com

Abstract— In satellites, the attitude determination and control
subsystem is the module which is responsible for maintaining,
monitoring and controlling the satellite attitude against the
environmental disturbances torques, which affect the satellite
orientation and leads to angular destabilization of the satellite
whileit is in orbit. ISRASAT1 project is a cube satellite research
project that is run by the Institute of Space Research and
Aerospace. The project aims to provide an educational and
testing tool technology platform, implements satellite system that
can be lunched in the nearest future. It is also intended for the
investigation of the possibility of using low-cost cube satellites in
the field of remote sensing. ISRASAT1 cube satellite utilized
passive attitude control in the first version of its design. However,
in its new version in order to satisfy accuracy requirements of
major payloads, ISRASAT1 has been developed to be of active
attitude control. The new attitude determination and control
subsystem is responsible for ensuring that ISRASAT1 will be de-
tumbled successfully after the launch, and keeps its orientation in
the desired orientation as far as possible. In this paper; the
design and implement of an active attitude determination and
control subsystem for ISRASAT1 cube satellite are thoroughly
presented and discussed. Different embedded software were used
to simulate the attitude determination and control subsystem,
which have shown good results.
Keywords—CubeSat, Nanosatellite, ISRASAT1, Orientation,
ADCS, Sensor, Actuator.
I. INTRODUCTION
Cube satellite (CubeSat) provides opportunity to prove new
technological innovations at a fraction of the cost of traditional
large satellite programs. With that trade in cost, numerous
challenges came out while trying to fit components that enable
the critical capabilities of large satellites in size, weight, and
the power-constrained environment [1].
In general, CubeSat is described as a class of nanosatellites
ranging from 10x10x10 cm and upwards, in 10cm increments
of length [2]. It is comprised of several subsystems that play a
crucial role in carrying out the small satellites mission. These
subsystems, including communication system, power supply,
and data handling that should be able to work together as one
system, in order for the mission to be successful [2].
Appropriate system integration is required to ensure this
compatibility among subsystems. In addition, depending on the
mission, CubeSat may need some form of stabilization system.
Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem (ADCS) is one
of the subsystems of the CubeSat, which is required to keep it
from spinning somehow freely in the space. It determines the
orientation of the spacecraft with respect to the Earth or other
frames of reference, and the positioning of the spacecraft in the
desired orientation [3].
The determination and control of the pointing of the
satellite are among the challenges that face CubeSat design.
For ADCS, a smaller satellite means less volume and mass for
sensors and actuators, as well as less processing power for
algorithms on a smaller and so limited central processing unit.
These challenges have not yet been fully addressed, as small
satellites are still considered a burgeoning enterprise [4].
The design of ADCS involves the broad study of the
behavior of small satellites that are orbiting at Low Earth
Orbits (LEO). It requires detailed analysis for the movement
and stability of satellite, using computer simulation. That
compromises study and investigation of control of attitude for
spacecraft, and to derive a mathematical model for the attitude
of ISRASAT1. The design process also includes modeling of
the onboard sensors and actuators, as well as developing the
overall ADCS software for ISRASAT1.
An important role in the design process of the ADCS is the
hardware selection in two areas: actuators, to maneuver the
CubeSat, and sensors, to detect the orientation of the satellite
relative to both the Sun and the Earth. Since the CubeSat has
very specific sizing and power requirements, the selection of
sensors and actuators are very much based on their mass, size,
and power. Of course, the cost is essential, but of less concern.
This paper is going to present ISRASAT1 project and the
subsystems of the the CubeSat, and focus on its ADCS general
specification as well as the design requirements. Then, it
highlights the process of hardware selection criteria followed,
which includes sensors and processor chosen for ISRASAT1
satellite, actuators design and the overall ADCS subsystem
power, mass and size budget that are comprehensively
calculated and designed.
 2017 International Conference on Communication, Control, Computing and Electronics Engineering (ICCCCEE), Sudan
II. ISRASTA1 CUBE SATELLITE
ISRASAT1 is a cube satellite that is designed to orbits at
450 km avove the Earth [4]. It is developed to send a beacon
signal to ISRA ground station and take an image when it
reaches Khartoum state [4]. ISRASAT1 consists of five
subsystems that are onboard computer (OBC), communication
subsystem (COMM), attitude determination and control
subsystem (ADCS), electrical power subsystem (EPS) and
payload subsystem which work together to meets ISRATSAT1
mission requirements [5].
The electrical power subsystem converts power generated
by the solar cells into suitable voltages used to charge the
batteries, and furthermore it distributes and manages power of
all the onboard subsystems [5]. The onboard computer
subsystem is responsible for collecting data from other
subsystems and make synchronization between the entire
subsystems [6]. The communication subsystem is responsible
for sending data collected by OBC to ISRA ground station,
and receiving telecommands from the station to satellite when
it needs to update ISRASAT1 data and calibrates its system
sensors. The payload system includes camera module that takes
and stores images that are transmitted to ISRA ground station
by the communication subsystem [4].
Lastly, the attitude determination and control subsystem
that stabilizes ISRASAT1 satellite against the environmental
disturbances while it is in orbit, in order to orient it in the
desired fixed nadir point. Fig. 1 below shows the main mission
of ADCS subsystem.
Fig. 1. Mission of ISRASAT1 ADCS subsystem
According to the one unit (1U) cube satellite standard,
ISRASAT1 is a satellite of length of 10cm, width of 10cm and
height of 10cm. The mechanical design and structre of
ISRASAT1 presented in Fig. 2 below. ISRASAT1 consist of
six outer frames, which contains inner stack compose of five
printed circuit boards (PCB) [7]. It also includes a camera
(CAM), a GPS receiver and one battery. Furthermore, the
ISRSAT1 supports deployable antennas in the top of the
satellite [7]. ISRASAT1 satellite also has five side panels,
which supports the solar cells [7].
Fig. 2. ISRASAT1 Mechanical Structure [7].
III. DESIDN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ISRASAT1 ADCS
This section presents the design and implementation of an
active ADCS of ISRASAT1, which is going to be induced in
the next version of ISRASAT1 cube satellite prototype. That
upgraded version works to add actuators to ISRASAT1, in
order to make its ADCS work as an active ADCS. This version
of ISRASAT1 ADCS also consists of a set of sensors, actuators
and microcontrollers that contains the ADCS algorithms. Thhat
ADCs could be divided into the two following units:
1. Attitude Determination (AD), which is used to
determine ISRASAT1 cube satellite current attitude and
position using attitude sensors and GPS.
2. Attitude Control (AC), which is responsible to damp the
initial random rotation and angular momentum after
deployment of ISRASAT1 and maintaining re-orienting
ISRASAT1 attitude, according to the data available
from AD. Fig. 3 belw shows the overall ADCS block
diagram.
Fig. 3. Block Diagram of the ADCS
A. ISRASAT1 ADCS Subsystem General Specification
 ISRASAT1 shall orbit at 450 km above the Earth.
 The speed of ISRASAT1 shall be 7.6 km/sec with the
periodic time equal to (5636.3 sec == 93.9 min) and
the eccentricity of the orbit equal to zero degrees.
 ISRASAT1 shall orbit around the Earth in circular
orbit with an inclination that is equal to 90 degrees.
 The system shall transmit its location.
 The system shall be able to measure, calculate and
store its attitude information .
 System shall have actuators to control ISRASAT1
satellite
 2017 International Conference on Communication, Control, Computing and Electronics Engineering (ICCCCEE), Sudan

B. ISRASAT1 ADCS Design Requirements TABLE I. ADCS Design Constrains According to ISRASAT1 Cube Satellite

ISRASAT1 CubeSat should be capable to de-tumble itself Parameters Value

successfully after deployment and point camera and antenna to Printed circuit board deminsion 6 x 6 cm
the ground station. This defines two major tasks (missions) of Maximum componrnts hightest 1.6 cm
the ADCS, which are de-tumbling and pointing ISRASAT1
Maximam power consmption 300 mW
cube satellite. ISRASAT1 ADCS hardware requirements are as
follows Maximam awowable mass 250 g

 The system shall be based on microcontrollers. Star tracker and horizon sensors both are very expensive
 The ADCS hardware must not rely on moving parts. sensors and hard to fit within cube satellite. Furthermore,
 The ADCS system hardware must be gathered in one ISRASAT1 mission requirements do not require this type of
PCB with the possibility of putting sensors and high precision that is provided by star tracker sensors. This
actuators in the ISRASAT1 side panel. makes the magnetometer, Sun sensor, gyroscope, and GPS
receiver to be an appropriate choice [4]. Also, magnetic coils
 The system shall use memory to save ADCS system will be the appropriate actuator because it meets all the
data and parameters. constraints mentioned above.
 The system shall have a GPS receiver for measuring The selected ADCS algorithms are not required to be of
position data. complicated computationas at all. The only intensive task may
 The system shall have a gyroscope, magnetometer and be the magnetic field measurements. Therefore, the primary
Sun sensor to provide full attitude data. factors of the microcontroller selection are
On the other hand, ISRASAT1 ADCS software 1. Having a minimum of three Pulse Width Modulation
requirements are as follows (PWM) channels to be the input to the three magnetic
coils.
 System software shall initialize all sensors modules 2. Having the analog-to-digital converter to receive Sun
when it powers on. sensors measurements.
 System software shall be able to restart the system. 3. Supporting the I2C communication protocol.
 System software shall read GPS and parese its data According to the above, Atmel microcontrollers are
such as time, date, longitude, latitude and altitude selected for ISRASAT1 ADS and ACS. Table (II) shows the
information through GPS data processing. selected components of the ADCS system with their mass,
 System software shall read and process sensor data power, and budget.
(gyroscope, magnetometer and Sun sensor) and TABLE II. Selected ADCS Components for ISRASAT1
determine attitude information.
Selected Voltage Power
 System software shall send an interrupt signal to the components
Mass (g) Size (mm)
(v) (mW)
Qty
OBC when it reaches Khartoum State and when it ComtecAA 26.0 20*20*20 5 No power 6
elapsed out from it (the range of the Khartoum State). ADIS16405 16.0 23*23*23 5 35 1
GPS 21.5 71*46*13 3.3 1 1
 System software shall store sensors data and system
HMC588L 0.018 3*3*0.9 3.17 .792 1
parameter into external memory. ATmega32 9.3 8.2*10*5.3 5 2.5 2
 The system shall be able to accept uploaded data from Magnetic
Coil
20 80*80 5 300 3
the ground station and store it to its external memory.
24C256 0.012 8.2*10*5.3 5 50 m 1
C. Selection of the Components for ISRASAT1 Cube Satellite D. Hardware Design of ISRASAT1 ADCS
The selection phase is one of the vital steps that must be Fig. 4 shows the diagram of the main hardware components
done carefully to meet ISRASAT1 requirements and of the attitude determination and control subsystem.
constraints. The ADCS components selection process concerns
about selecting sensors to determine and detect the orientation
of the ISRASAT1 relative to Earth, suitable actuators to orient
ISRASAT1 in the desired orientation, and microcontrollers to
implement ADCS algorithms.
The sensors shall be selected according to their mass, size,
and power, taking into account that sensors should be accurate
enough, of acceptable cost and easy to implement. The
actuators are selected using the same sensors selection criteria,
in addition to the reliability and acceptable pointing accuracy
of actuators. Table. I below contains the major ADCS design Fig. 4. Block Diagram of hardware components of ADCS Subsystem in
constraints. ISRASAT1 Cube Satellite
 2017 International Conference on Communication, Control, Computing and Electronics Engineering (ICCCCEE), Sudan

TABLE. III below briefly describes the different components that are The first thing that has to be done is to set up the different
connected to the ADCS microcontroller.
sensors connected to the ADS microcontroller and the
TABLE III. ADCS Components Connected to the Microcontroller microcontroller itself. Parameters for setting up the sensors are
source Interface Type Comments stored in internal the microcontroller memory.
Magnetometer I2C 16 bit magnetic value 3- Estimation State
Sun sensor Analog Six analog voltage In this process, the determination algorithm is implemented
Current through the
Magnetic coil Analog
coil measured and it gets data from external sensors and different trajectories
Groscope I2C Angular velocity from memory. The transmission also will be initiated to start
Memory 12C Back storage communication with ADC and COMM systems.
GPS UART Postion and time data
4- Communication State
In the communication process, the Two-Wire-Interface is
D. Software Design of ISRASAT1 ADCS controlled between different subsystems. Messages are
Software of the ADCS was developed in C programming prepared for transmission and incoming messages are being
language, using Atmel Studio IDE and Code Vision AVR interpreted, such as shown in Fig. 6 below.
program. Data flowcharts and some translation diagrams were
used to describe the behavior of the system. Fig. 5 below IV. RESULTS
shows the overall system flowchart which describes the ADCS ADS microcontroller checks the stability of ISRASAT1
system main objectives. and reads the GPS signal through UART interface. It processes
(parse) the GPS data to acquire the position of the ISRASAT1
cube satellite and send it to the OBC and communication
subsystem, as shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 repectivily. The
interrupt mode inside and outside Khartoum State is indicated
on the LCD connected to OBC microcontroller.

Fig. 6. Circuit Digram for GPS Data parsing ‘In Khartoum Test

Fig. 5. Mission of ISRASAT1 ADCS System

The attitude determination system (ADS) microcontroller

receives the data from the different sensors and determines the
attitude data. The communication between the ADS
microcontroller and other subsystems are taken care of by Two
Wire Interface (TWI). The message from ADS system also
used the TWI address for reception is included. This address
can either be that of the COMM, ADC or OBC subsystem. The
ADS consist of four main processes these are:
1- Waiting State
During the de-tumble phase wait process, ADS controls the
entire system and waiting for an initiating message. The task Fig. 7. Circuit Digram GPS Data parsing ‘Out of Khartoum’ Test
starts determination at given intervals. The Sun sensors compose of six photodiodes. The output
2- Initiate System State from each photodiode is connected to the analog-to-digital
convertor pins that are available in Port-A of Atmega32
 2017 International Conference on Communication, Control, Computing and Electronics Engineering (ICCCCEE), Sudan
microcontroller, from 1 to 6. Fig. 8 shows Sun sensor reading .
The data obtained from the Sun sensor is used to calculate the
Sun directioin from ISRASAT1 cube satellite. As shown on the
LCD, the Sun at the (+X-axis) form the ISRASAT1 cube
satellite.
Fig. 8. Circuit Digram of Sun Sensor raw data and Sun Direction
The magnetometer and gyroscope are used to obtain full
attitude data and success de-tumble (after dyployment
ISRASAT1 into orbit), which describes the attitude of the
ISRASAT1 cube satellite while it in space. Finally, the Overall
ADCS subsystem and messages sent through UART interface
to ACS microcontroller, OBC and communication are shown
in Fig.9 below. The system sends different messages format
and saving attitude data into the external memory as backup.
Fig. 9. Messages sent through UART Interface to ACS Microcontroller,
OBC and Communication Subsystem through UART
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V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the design and implementation of an active
attitude determination and control subsystem of ISRASAT1
cube satellite has been widely presented and discussed.
Microcontroller interfacing with sensors, actuators, and other
parts of the ISRASAT1 cube satellite subsystems and software
design for the overall ADCS subsystem were described.
It was demonstrated that according to the design ADCS of
ISRASAT1 and its requirements; magnetometer, Sun sensor,
gyroscope, GPS receiver and Atmega32 microcontroller as
processor are appropriate choices for ISRASAT1 ADCS.
Besides, the magnetic coil was proved to be the appropriate
actuator because it meets all the ADCS constraints.
To achieve full ADCS system design, microcontroller was
programmed using different embedded software programs,
according to the circuit design accomplished.
Finally, the results obtained from software simulation were
presented and have shown good results. Hence, the designed
and simulated ADCS is ready to be implemented and fitted in
ISRASAT1, so as to determine its attitude and control it while
it is orbiting.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors of this paper would like to acknowledge the staff
of the Institute of Space Research and Aerospace (ISRA),
particularly colleagues working on the CubeSat research
project in the institute, for their continuous support and
everlasting help.
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