Design and navigation control of an advanced level CANSAT (original) (raw)

CanSat Descent Control System Design and Implementation

The aim of this study is to design a descent control system for a CanSat that simulates a sensor payload travelling through a Martian atmosphere and sampling the atmospheric composition during flight. CanSat is a first step in space studies that gives low cost opportunity to test the space program design. The system is developed under the rules of International CanSat Competition 2016, which aims to simulate the Mars glider project of NASA. A novel descent control system approach was designed and implemented with cadets according to the requirements of the competition.

Design and implementation of a rover-back CANSAT

2011

In this study, a CanSat with capability of returning back to target is designed and implemented. The device is a part of project that has been implemented during the CLTP (CanSat Leadership Training Program) in Wakayama University. The CanSat is controlled by a state-of-the-art MBED 32-bit microcontroller. The main components are the pressure, ultrasonic, gps sensors and the 2.4 GHZ transmitter. The mission is planned for two stages which are flight back to the target by a paraglider and rovering on the ground on wheels. The process will be monitored on the ground station via the GoogleEarth software. The electronics&hardware design and the control algorithm is discussed in depth in this paper.

Design and Control of High Altitude Platform for Communication and Navigation Purpose

2016

The high altitude platform is designed for navigation and communication purpose. This work focuses on the design and dynamic model of airship that can operate at a height of twenty kilometers above sea level. Significant target of this paper is to propose a coordinating system which can remotely pilot and also has an option of autopilot with auto station keeping. The various control techniques are presented in order to achieve the level flight. First a comprehensive physical and mathematical nonlinear model of the airship is presented and then linearize it by the means of linearization principles. After that, model based control technique such as Linear Feedback Control (LFC), Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and proportional, integral and differential (PID) control are used to achieve level flight of the airship which give robustness against climatic and outer turbulences. With a specific end goal to represent the model based control strategies. The level flight has been accomplish...

A new framework for design and development imaginary CanSat

CONFERENCE OF IRANIAN AEROSPACE SOCIETY, 2015

In this paper, structure of IDAS CanSat that has been designed, constructed and tested in IUST, is presented. This paper includes a description of CanSat mission, design of mechanical subsystem, electronic circuits, and also an analysis of performance algorithms. One of the special features of IDAS is its very light weight in comparison with other congeners. This feature leads to a relatively complex design for mechanical subsystems including structure, reaction wheel and parachute. A Combination of freewheeling and balls and bowl ideas has been used to connect the parachute to the CanSat structure. This joint keeps the CanSat movement perpendicular to the ground. The parachute has been designed for high safety margin (in weight and speed), to satisfy the expectations of stability along with the reaction wheel. With the stability resulted, imaging was done without any mechanical disturbances and with high quality. In the electronic subsystem, we have used an ARM microcontroller to control the camera. Camera's data, due to their high volume, were stored on SD card and sent to ground station if necessary. As the microcontroller operates in high clock frequency, it offers CanSat complex and varied operationally such as release detection and data handling. Release detection algorithm is sensitive to CanSat acceleration. This is a new approach and reduces the probability of faulty detection. After release, CanSat tries to achieve its goal and take pictures from ground while reading, storing and sending the sensors data to the ground station. To verify these functions, we implemented several tests and experiments.

A low-cost altitude control system for the kadet senior radio-controlled airplane

IEEE Transactions on Education, 2003

In automatic control education, real examples always improve students' learning and motivation. Considering this fact, a hardware-in-the-loop, low-cost altitude control system for a radiocontrolled (RC) airplane has been developed to improve automatic control education. This system constitutes a high-impact demonstrator for teaching automatic control topics, applied to a real-life problem. The airplane has an altitude sensor; students can safely remotely control this variable in a computer real-time environment. This paper addresses the system analysis and description, controller design, and real demonstrations. This device was tested in a basic automatic control course for undergraduate electrical engineering students and received good results; students reacted with curiosity and enthusiasm and encouraged the lecturers to design more experiences like this one.

Design and fabrication of advance level CANSAT Used for measuring the atmospheric parameters And GPS tracking system

Satellite communication is an advanced mode of communication in aerospace. Design, fabrication, launch of satellites is a complex task and very few countries have succeeded in this and the cost involved is very high. Design of these satellites at college level need a lot of research and expertise. Can Sat is one of the simplest design of satellites. The low cost of implementation, short preparation time and simplicity of design compared to other space projects make Can Sat concept an excellent practical opportunity for students to take their first steps in space. It gives students a first-hand experience on how a real time satellite will be as Can Sat faces same problems like a real time satellite. The Can Sat project aims to develop a can-sized satellite which measures atmospheric data and transmits the acquired data to a ground station. The Can Sat is launched using a rocket and safe landing is done using parachute. The main objective of the project is to conduct a case study about the variations in the temperature and humidity with respect to altitude in different places. The Can Sat is controlled by a micro controller. The main components are the humidity sensor, temperature sensor and GPS module. The data that is stored by the Can Sat during the mission is then read and plotted.

GROUND STATION DESIGN PROCEDURES FOR CANSAT

CANSAT's are getting more popular each day in aerospace engineering curriculums because they enable the students to have hands-on experience on virtual satellite launch operations. This paper presents design and implementation of a PC based ground station for CANSAT's. So far, most of the emphasis has been built on the hardware and software inside the CANSAT. However, during the competitions it has been observed that even though the CANSAT works perfectly, the ground station frequently fails therefore leading to mission failure. In this study a ground station is developed from scratch using a high level language (C#) and the procedure is defined briefly. The station is platform-free therefore it may operate with any CANSAT having different brand microcontrollers. The users may track several parameters and send control commands simultaneously. The ground-station is one of the most important aspects of CANSAT trials however, for the beginners it may be challenging to provide all these features at once. This study defines many practical aspects of designing ground stations so that more emphasis may be given to the design of CANSAT hardware and software.

Navigation and Guidance System Architectures for Small Unmanned Aircraft Applications

Two multisensor system architectures for navigation and guidance of small Unmanned Aircraft (UA) are presented and compared. The main objective of our research is to design a compact, light and relatively inexpensive system capable of providing the required navigation performance in all phases of flight of small UA, with a special focus on precision approach and landing, where Vision Based Navigation (VBN) techniques can be fully exploited in a multisensor integrated architecture. Various existing techniques for VBN are compared and the Appearance-Based Navigation (ABN) approach is selected for implementation. Feature extraction and optical flow techniques are employed to estimate flight parameters such as roll angle, pitch angle, deviation from the runway centreline and body rates. Additionally, we address the possible synergies of VBN, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and MEMS-IMU (Micro-Electromechanical System Inertial Measurement Unit) sensors, and the use of Aircraft Dynamics Model (ADM) to provide additional information suitable to compensate for the shortcomings of VBN and MEMS-IMU sensors in high-dynamics attitude determination tasks. An Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is developed to fuse the information provided by the different sensors and to provide estimates of position, velocity and attitude of the UA platform in real-time. The key mathematical models describing the two architectures i.e., VBN-IMU-GNSS (VIG) system and VIG-ADM (VIGA) system are introduced. The first architecture uses VBN and GNSS to augment the MEMS-IMU. The second mode also includes the ADM to provide augmentation of the attitude channel. Simulation of these two modes is carried out and the performances of the two schemes are compared in a small UA integration scheme (i.e., AEROSONDE UA platform) exploring a representative cross-section of this UA operational flight envelope, including high dynamics manoeuvres and CAT-I to CAT-III precision approach tasks. Simulation of the first system architecture (i.e., VIG system) shows that the integrated system can reach position, velocity and attitude accuracies compatible with the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) requirements. Simulation of the VIGA system also shows promising results since the achieved attitude accuracy is higher using the VBN-IMU-ADM than using VBN-IMU only. A comparison of VIG and VIGA system is also performed and it shows that the position and attitude accuracy of the proposed VIG and VIGA systems are both compatible with the RNP specified in the various UA flight phases, including precision approach down to CAT-II.

Proposal for navigation and control system for small UAV

Aviation, 2010

The article presents the project of UAV control system realized at Department of Avionics and Control Systems of Rzeszów University of Technology. The project is based on earlier experiences. In the article general structure of the onboard control system is shown as well as the structure of control station. There are described in proposed control and navigation procedures as well as human factor, failure detection and system reconfiguration.

An Innovative Navigation and Guidance System for Small Unmanned Aircraft using Low-Cost Sensors

Two multi-sensor architectures for navigation and guidance of small Unmanned Aircraft (UA) are proposed and compared in this paper. These architectures are based respectively on a standard Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) approach and a more advanced Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) approach for data fusion of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) based Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and Vision Based Navigation (VBN) sensors. The main objective is to design a compact, light and relatively inexpensive system capable of providing the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) in all phases of flight of small UA, with a special focus on precision approach and landing. The novelty of this paper is the augmentation of Aircraft Dynamics Model (ADM) in both architectures to compensate for the MEMS-IMU sensor shortcomings in high-dynamics attitude determination tasks. Additionally, the ADM measurements are pre-filtered by an UKF with the purpose of increasing the ADM attitude solution stability time in the UKF based system. After introducing the key mathematical models describing the two architectures, the EKF based VBN-IMU-GNSS-ADM (VIGA) system and the UKF based system (VIGA + ) performances are compared in a small UA integration scheme (i.e., AEROSONDE UA platform) exploring a representative cross-section of this UA operational flight envelope, including high dynamics manoeuvres and CAT-I to CAT-III precision approach tasks. The comparison shows that the position and attitude accuracy of the proposed VIGA and VIGA + systems are compatible with the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) specified in the various UA flight profiles, including precision approach down to CAT-II.