Design and simulation analysis of Attitude and Determination Control System for the CubeSat 12U ATISE

The ability of satellites to actively control their attitude has changed the way we live. Navigation systems, satellite television, and weather forecasting, for example, all rely on satellites which are able to determine and control their attitude accurately. After a short introduction to the argument, in order to accompany you through the various phases of this project, you need to understand the Model Theory, explained in the second chapter, with the analysis about different control system, focusing on the space control. Then, the third chapter will show what is the Attitude Determination Control System, how acts in a satellite mission, which architecture can assume, with different solutions and with all the steps needed for design and validation. The fourth chapter open with the real project that was aimed at designing and analysing an attitude determination and control system (ADCS) for a 20 kg observation satellite, the CubeSat 12U ATISE, with the Centre Spatial Universitaire de Toulouse (CSUT), which has been the base over developed this thesis, going through all different step of the design process; starting with the requirements analysis, to the equipment architecture and modes chosen, and then the mathematical approach with the computation of control laws. At the end there is a precise analysis on the models developed able to simulate different modes during its life; they are Safe Mode and Mission Mode. A realistic simulation toolset, which includes the space environment, sensor, and actuator models, was created using MATLAB and Simulink.