An Architecture Analysis of ADCS for CubeSat: A Recipe for ADCS Design of ICUBE

Abstract

This research article presents the architecture analysis and design of Attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS) of the Pico-Satellites especially the CubeSat, developed and launched into the Low Earth orbit (LEO). ADCS is not a stringent requirement for all the CubeSat missions but several missions were specifically designed to test and validate the ADCS. This paper contributes in evaluating the previous ADCS of CubeSat and presents an optimal ADCS design and a recipe for any CubeSat mission and specifically for the upcoming ICUBE of the Institute of Space Technology (IST), Pakistan. The proposed ADCS for ICUBE includes GPS receiver as position sensor while magnetometer as attitude sensor and magnetic coils as the active actuators. The determination will be done by Kalman filter and LQR will be used as a controller.