Development and Evaluation of the 1/30U Small-Sized 3 Axis Attitude Control Module, and its Application for the JEM Internal Ball Camera Robot

Abstract

In this paper, we propose the 1/30U small-sized 3-axis attitude control module. The idea of using an electrical circuit board as a structural component reduces the mass of the mechanical structure and the electrical wiring as well. Adapting the System-On-Chip (SoC) reduced the circuit area while maintaining the complexity of the electric circuit. We managed to develop an attitude control module measuring 31 mm in size and 88 g in weight. This module contains 3-axis reaction wheels, six MEMS-IMU sensors (18-axis acceleration and 18-axis gyro), and an attitude control computer. The module only requires a power supply and external serial communication. The module can also be connected to other navigation sensor. And by adding the extension circuit, this module can drive and control 12 actuators, such as micro thrusters. An on-orbit evaluation was conducted with the JEM Internal Ball Camera Robot as the control system for robot position and attitude. The robot is an autonomous maneuverable ball-shaped camera that is operated by ground operators. Twelve micro fans and the proposed module are integrated inside the robot to realize 6-axes maneuvering, and a navigation camera provides the robot’s relative position and attitude to a target marker. This paper discusses an evaluation of attitude control accuracy to reveal the module’s on-orbit performance.