Astrium公司创建了世界上第一个双向视激光l Link Between an Aircraft and a Communication Satellite

Challenge

开发控件以确保飞机和通信卫星之间激光光学链路的精度

Solution

使用MathWorks工具来模拟控制算法和指向硬件,进行硬件循环测试,并部署用于飞行测试的实时系统

Results

  • First-of-its-kind optical link demonstrated
  • Design iterations reduced from days to hours
  • Overall development time reduced by six months

“使用MathWorks工具进行基于模型的设计,我们不仅模拟了我们的控制算法,还模拟了物理硬件。通过自动为控制软件和测试台生成代码,我们减少了开发时间并快速实现了变化。我们可视化仿真和测试结果,这给了我们对我们最终部署的设计的信心。“

大卫格里,八月
LOLA telescope assembly, as fitted to aircraft in Artemis laser link trials.

Until recently, laser optical links for high-bandwidth satellite transmissions were limited to satellite-to-satellite communication. To establish such a link with an aircraft, engineers had to contend with the distortion and attenuation of the signal by the atmosphere and by the movement and vibrations of the aircraft.

Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, developed LOLA, a two-way laser optical link between an airborne aircraft and the Artemis geostationary satellite capable of 50 megabits-per-second transmission with an error rate of less than one error bit per billion.

astrium通过使用Mathworks工具对基于模型的设计进行了减少的控制开发和验证时间,这是在组织内已经很好地建立的方法。

"We use Model-Based Design regularly for timed simulations and modeling spacecraft dynamics," explains David Gendre, pointing development engineer at Astrium. "On this project, we used Simulink, Simulink Coder, and Simulink Real-Time to develop a control system model and a physical model of the pointing hardware. We used these models for continuous functional verification and to generate code for hardware-in-the-loop tests and the real-time demonstration system used in flight tests."

Challenge

Astrium’s system had to control and dampen the aircraft’s high-frequency vibrations as well as its roll, pitch, and yaw. It also had to track the laser beam despite the disturbances and distortion caused by the atmosphere.

基于惯性测量单元,有源像素传感器和GPS接收器的输入,控制系统使用致动器来调节望远镜的方位角和高度,以便较大尺度控制,并沿两个轴调节指向镜子以进行微量 -谷物控制。

当astrium与真正的硬件进行第一次测试时,只有微调组件可用。结果,除了控制系统之外,还要验证它们需要模拟,模拟和生成用于大部分物理系统的代码。

Solution

Astrium engineers used MathWorks tools for Model-Based Design to model, simulate, and verify the control algorithms and telescope pointing hardware; conduct hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) tests; and deploy a fully operational, real-time system for flight tests.

横梁进行飞行试验,以测量飞机和俯仰,卷和偏航角度变化中的振动。马铃薯®and Optimization Toolbox™ were used to process the measurement data as input to the control system model.

They divided the project into two parallel efforts, with one group using Simulink®使用Simulink设计和模拟控制系统和第二种,以模拟望远镜指点硬件的机制和有源像素传感器的行为。金宝appSimu金宝applink模型使团队能够在整个开发中传达设计决策。

Using Simulink, engineers developed components for each control-system operating mode, including pointing, acquisition, and tracking. They used Control System Toolbox™ to develop linear time-invariant models and reused functional blocks from their Simulink library, including blocks for orbit models and geometric analysis using quaternion computations.

在Simulink中运行时 - 频域模拟以验证控制系统的功能和稳定性,工程师使用Simulink Coder™为金宝app控制软件和物理模型生成代码。然后,它们使用HIL测试进行了第二个航空验证阶段,控制系统在实际硬件(用于微量控制指向)和模拟硬件的组合上操作(用于更大的指向)。

在整个开发中,MathWorks工具促进了并发工程,软件工程师负责管理控制系统的实时约束以及开发诸如图像处理和特定硬件驱动程序等功能。“这些函数很容易嵌入在Simulink模型中的S函数中,”Gendre解释说。金宝app

工程师使用Simulink Real-金宝appTime™在专为飞行测试的PC上部署了系统的全功能,实时版本。

Results

  • First-of-its-kind optical link demonstrated。望远镜指向控制系统使Astrium能够展示空中飞机和通信卫星之间的世界上第一个双向激光光学联系。

  • Design iterations reduced from days to hours。“During HIL tests we have many other teams involved, including the people that handle the test bench and the optics. It is important to be able to react quickly and resolve problems,” says Gendre. “With Simulink we can make the necessary modification, re-generate the software using Simulink Coder, and start the test again in a half-day. Similar changes used to take us almost a week.”

  • Overall development time reduced by six months。“Using MathWorks tools for Model-Based Design enabled us to shorten our development effort by about six months,” says Gendre. “A big part of that time savings was due to automatic generation of the code for the control system and the test bench. On the test bench alone, we increased our development speed by a factor of four.”