Hybrid digital twin for satellite temperature field perception and attitude control

Abstract

Digital twin has become a critical technical solution for satellite in-orbit service and maintenance. The majority of existing research in this field has focused on constructing system-level digital twins, with various typical applications that primarily describe the operating condition of satellite subsystems. However, achieving a more meticulous portrayal of in-orbit satellites necessitates the inclusion of physical field information, e.g., the temperature field serves as a fundamental basis for characterizing the thermodynamic state and plays a crucial role in precise thermal management of a satellite. The main challenge for realizing thorough state detection and real-time response lies in the cross-level model fusion of system simulation and physical field calculation. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a Hybrid Digital Twin (HDT) framework that seamlessly integrates the digital twin at the system-level with its physical field-level counterpart, enabling a comprehensive and detailed representation of modeling objects. Specifically, at the physical field-level, deep learning methods are utilized to construct an accurate surrogate model, offering a lightweight, computationally efficient and accelerated execution alternative to the Finite Element Analysis models. At the system-level, multi-domain unified modeling technology is employed to ensure both efficiency and accuracy of coupling simulation. Moreover, a co-simulation approach is developed on the basis of the Functional Mock-up Interface, overcoming the bottleneck of cross-level information interaction and computing time synchronization. The practical utility of the proposed framework is verified by a real-world engineering problem, i.e., satellite temperature field perception and attitude control in the context of the harsh space environment. Whole process engineering experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the HDT, with mean absolute errors below 1 K for temperature field reconstruction and within 1° for attitude control.