Satellite actuator balancing based on the disturbance measurement table data

Abstract

Reaction wheel is one of primary actuators for satellite attitude control. Since it uses electrical power supplied by the solar panels and thus consumes no invaluable fuel of satellite, it has been used as primary actuator. However, rotation of reaction wheel induces torque and force disturbances which degrade the satellite attitude stability quality. The disturbances are mainly due to static and dynamic imbalances of the wheel. These imbalances shall be reduced on the stage of manufacturing. In this his paper a method for the imbalance reduction of the wheel is suggested. Torque/force measurement table is used to measure the disturbances of the reaction wheel and the measured data are used for the identification of location and magnitude of the imbalances. The corrections of the imbalances are performed by adding proper counter masses on the wheel. Through iterative balancing steps, the static and dynamic imbalances are remarkably reduced.