Impacts of Reaction Wheel Disturbance on the Attitude Determination Process of Satellites with Magnetometer Sensor
Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Aerospace Engineering Sharif University of Technology Tehran-Iran
2
Satellite Systems Research Center Iran Space Organization Tehran-Iran
Abstract
In an operational satellite, the attitude determination (AD) and control system (ADCS) tasks include attitude determination, stabilization, and pointing against internal and external disturbance moments. These tasks use several sensors, actuators, and some pertinent AD algorithms. In this sense, the magnetometer (MAG) sensor is among the most common sensors used for attitude estimation that can be utilized in association with reaction wheels (RWs) as a reliable and efficient actuation mechanism for a three-axis attitude control satellite. Unfortunately, RWs generate magnetic field disturbances during operation as ADCS commanded, adversely interacting ADCS commanded, adversely interacting with the magnetometers. The latter will inevitably cause MAG errors that affect the accuracy of the satellite AD process. Most effective AD algorithms utilize the noise-polluted sensor output for attitude estimation via filtering. The present research attends to the magnetic disturbance of RWs, which is beyond the range of the MAGs noisy output range, to show the disturbance's effect on the AD process and its enhancement for satellites equipped with MAG sensors. According to the results of this study, the disturbance resulting from the interference of the distributed magnetic field, which is due to the operation of the RWs, significantly degrades AD accuracy.
Keywords
Subjects
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Volume 5, Issue 1 - Serial Number 9
September 2025Pages 53-63
- Receive Date 12 October 2024
- Revise Date 01 December 2024
- Accept Date 08 January 2025