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海军研究生学院用快速控制原型试验台速度速度开发和测试航天器引导算法

挑战

Develop and test GNC algorithms for spacecraft rendezvous and proximity operations

解决方案

Use Model-Based Design with MATLAB and Simulink to model and simulate algorithms, and generate code for testing and verification on floating spacecraft simulator

结果

  • 研究生产力增加
  • 学生释放到实验室以外的任务
  • 几周长期的研究工作减少到几小时

“金宝appSimulink可以从桌面仿真无缝转换到硬件上测试,让学生拥有真正的硬件的实践体验。使用Matlab和Simulink的模拟,代码生成和数据分析使我们能够大大加速我们的研究。“金宝app

Prof. Marcello Romano, Naval Postgraduate School
Marcello Romano教授和NPS Spacocraft Robotics实验室研究团队与Poseidyn Test Bed和Floating Spacecraft模拟器。

Marcello Romano教授和NPS Spacocraft Robotics实验室研究团队与Poseidyn Test Bed和Floating Spacecraft模拟器。左右Hyeongjun Park博士(NRC博士后研究人员)。照片由javier chagoya。


随着航天器的结合和接近操作变得更加复杂,对更有能力和越来越自主的板载引导,导航和控制(GNC)算法的需求不断增长。调试和测试这些空间中的这些算法是成本禁止的,但是通过桌面模拟的替代调试和测试 - 可能不会考虑影响真实世界性能的所有因素。

为了解决这一挑战,航天器机器人实验室(SRL)的研究人员在海军研究生院(NPS)的机械和航空航天工程系中开发了一个试验台,用于验证动态模型和GNC算法,实时,快速控制原型设计测试。试验床称为Poseidyn-邻近操作的航天器:实验硬件循环动态模拟器 - 自2004年以来,Romano博士和他的研究团队成员开发和精炼。试验床由多个浮动航天器组成模拟器(FSS),漂浮在4×4米花岗岩板上的空气缓冲上的机器人车辆。每个FSS都配备了板载处理器,传感器和执行器,使其能够在几乎无摩擦的测试床表面上使用三个自由度移动。

SRL的研究人员和学生用Matlab使用基于模型的设计®和模拟金宝app®在验证试验台上之前开发和模拟GNC算法。然后,它们使用自动代码生成来实现算法。

“The simulation environment we created with MATLAB and Simulink enables our research team and our students to develop and debug algorithms on any desktop PC and then translate the models to C code to run on the vehicles,” says Dr. Marcello Romano, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the NPS and director/PI of the Spacecraft Robotics Lab. “With Simulink Coder we can transition from running simulations of a guidance algorithm to testing it on hardware in minutes.”

挑战

A primary goal of developing the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test bed was to enable researchers to test their GNC algorithms in an environment that captured effects that are difficult to emulate in a software simulator. These include the high-frequency effects of thruster actuation and contact dynamics between vehicles. The embedded control systems on the FSS needed to process data from an onboard fiberoptic gyroscope at one clock rate while executing the guidance algorithm at another. Writing code for real-time, multirate software by hand would have been a significant challenge for researchers.

除了提供一个实验平台for researchers, Dr. Romano wanted to give NPS students an opportunity to complete hands-on projects using the FSS hardware. Few students had experience with writing real-time code, making it all but impossible to complete meaningful projects via hand-coding in a single 12-week quarter. Dr. Romano wanted the students to model control algorithms and debug them via simulation on their own computers and then test the verified algorithms on the FSS hardware in the lab.

解决方案

NPS used Model-Based Design to establish a development and testing workflow for GNC algorithms used in spacecraft rendezvous and proximity operations.

Working in Simulink, the SRL researchers developed a plant model of the FSS, including its sensors, thrusters, and reaction wheel.

The SRL team created a Simulink library that contained blocks for individual FSS components and blocks for controlling those components, including a sigma-delta modulator block for the thrusters.

接下来,它们在Simulink中创建了一个模板模型,包括工厂,基本导航和控制元金宝app素和指导子系统。

研究人员使用此模板来模拟和模拟引导算法,用自己的Simulink模型替换指导子系统块。金宝appAerospace BlockSet™中的仿真速度块使它们能够减慢仿真速率,以便模拟的FSS以大致相同的速度作为其现实世界的对应。

通过仿真验证其算法后,研究人员使用Simulink Coder™从Simulink模型生成C代码,针对在板上英特尔的FSS金宝app®Atom™ processor, which runs a version of real-time Linux®

在仿真测试期间,研究人员收集车辆位置,速度和推进剂的数据。他们分析了Matlab中的这些数据来评估和改进其算法并产生用于发布论文的数据可视化。

NPS教授使用MATLAB,SIMULINK和POSE金宝appIDYN TEST床来教授两个研究生级课程。在航天器态度,决心和控制,学生使用Simulink来模金宝app拟并模拟两个姿态控制系统,使用推进器和另一个反应轮。

机器人多体系,students complete final projects that combine the FSS with a four-link robotic arm. Students in both courses develop and debug their designs in Simulink before generating code for hardware tests.

由于NPS具有校园范围的许可证,因此学生可以在任何选择的地方工作:在实验室,在课堂上,或在家里自己的笔记本电脑。

SRL研究人员目前正在探索对试验台的改进,包括将倾斜和俯仰添加到花岗岩表面,以模拟航天器在轨道上经历的动态,实现基于GPU的并行引导和导航算法,并创建了FSS的开放式硬件版本帮助其他大学开发类似的平台。

结果

  • 研究生产力增加。罗马诺博士说:罗马诺博士说:罗马诺博士说:罗马诺博士说:“我们的小组刚刚发表了五篇历史论文和六篇会议论文。”“Matlab和Simu金宝applink在我们更高的生产率中一直是关键因素,因为它们已经缩短了创建项目和获得结果之间的时间。”
  • 学生释放到实验室以外的任务。“With our Campus-Wide License, students have Campus-Wide License access to the tools from the day they arrive, so they can start being productive right away,” Dr. Romano says. “Students can use MATLAB and Simulink on their personal computers, which means they can work outside the ‘normal business hours’ of computer labs, and even without network connectivity.”
  • 几周长期的研究工作减少到几小时。“Working in Simulink, we were able to implement a new algorithm, debug it, fine-tune it in simulation, run it on the test bed, and get results that we used for one of our journal papers—all in about six hours,” says Richard Zappulla II, a Ph.D. candidate at the NPS-SRL. “Hand-coding the algorithm in C would have been a formidable task requiring weeks of effort.”