Sistema de controle e determinação de atitude para nanosatélites: uma abordagem para o Cubedesign 2025

Abstract

This work presents the complete development, from mathematical modeling to experimental validation, of the Attitude Determination and Control System for the 2U CubeSat nanosatellite AllSpark, developed for the CubeDesign 2025 competition organized by Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais. Framed within the New Space context, the project adopts an architecture based on Commercial Off-The-Shelf components, employing the ESP32 microcontroller and a Nidec 24H brushless motor coupled to a reaction wheel. The methodology comprises gray-box system identification for actuator dynamic characterization, the design of a Proportional–Integral controller via pole placement, and the implementation of an adaptive Linear Kalman Filter for gyroscope–magnetometer sensor fusion. Numerical simulations demonstrated a settling time of 10.84 seconds and a steady-state error below 0.3 degrees, meeting the mission’s theoretical requirements. Experimental tests conducted on INPE’s air-bearing table validated the system’s functionality in detumbling and in the pointing required by the oil-detection payload, although they revealed discrepancies in dynamic performance attributed to process concurrency in the firmware due to the absence of a Real-Time Operating System and to limitations in electronic manufacturing. It is concluded that the application of affordable hardware for academic orbital control is technically viable, provided rigorous real-time software integration criteria are observed.