Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier. (2017-2018 à 2018-2019)

Microsat Systems Canada Inc. (referred to as 'MSCI hereinafter) is a privately held Canadian corporation basedx000D
in Mississauga, Ontario. MSCI is a world-renowned premiere builder of microsatellites in Canada over the pastx000D
two decades with worldwide track record in attitude control system (ACS) design, ACS sensors and actuators.x000D
In particular, MSCI's reaction wheels - critical component in ACS actuator suite - have been launched and arex000D
operational in orbit, with over 216 years of accumulated flight heritage and 58 billion revolutions withoutx000D
failure [1]. Our research team at York University is proposing to extend our current ACS research to examinex000D
reaction wheel parameter identification with special interest in MSCI's reaction wheels. We propose to developx000D
a novel method to characterize the wheels' performance and estimate the moment of inertia of the reactionx000D
wheel's rotor, which is considered a key parameter in providing a higher accuracy attitude control. Thex000D
proposed research is in direct support of MSCI's current efforts to improve the manufacturing and testing theirx000D
reaction wheels. We aim to provide reliable and cost-effective means to better evaluate the wheels'x000D
performance and advice on cost-saving methods for manufacturing of such commercial products.x000D
While we have made significant progress towards developing advanced determination and control algorithmsx000D
designed to compensate for uncertainty in attitude control hardware, there still exist significant gap in sensorx000D
and actuator modeling. For example, there is still a great need for high-fidelity actuator model and estimationx000D
of actuator parameters to achieve arc-second level pointing accuracy on small spacecraft. The contribution ofx000D
this study is in developing novel and reliable ways to model attitude actuator. In particular, we propose tox000D
develop a methodology for modeling reaction wheels and estimate their key immeasurable parameters.