Session
Poster Session 2
Location
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract
- Magnetic field generation and compensation are essential for laboratory testing of an attitude determination and control system (ADCS) for small satellites. Since commercial magnetic test facilities are often unavailable or impractical for university laboratories, such setups are typically developed in-house. A controlled magnetic environment allows for reliable magnetometer characterization, magnetorquer testing, and evaluation of attitude control algorithms, enabling repeatable ADCS experiments under well-defined conditions.
- At our university, a CubeSat-class ADCS is being developed from the ground up by students, with a focus on hands on hardware development and experimental validation. The current ADCS prototype includes magnetic sensors, custom-developed magnetorquers, and reaction wheels, all configured for three-axis operation. To support experimental evaluation, a three-degree-of-freedom air-bearing testbed was designed and built on-site, providing full rotational freedom for a 1U CubeSat platform, and forming the basis for integrated laboratory testing.
- Building on the developed ADCS prototype and air-bearing testbed, we focused on the design and development of a Helmholtz cage. To inform our approach, we reviewed over twenty university-developed Helmholtz cage systems to identify common design approaches, mechanical configurations, power electronics solutions, and experimental validation methods. These findings guided the design priorities of our setup, focusing on practicality, accessibility, and compatibility with the existing test infrastructure. In this work, we present the initial design and early experimental development of a Helmholtz cage intended for CubeSat ADCS testing. The work includes numerical magnetic field simulations of a square coil configuration to define a usable test volume suitable for 1U and 2U CubeSats. These simulations are complemented by a full 3D CAD model of the proposed system, which supports mechanical design and integration. Initial experiments compared the measured magnetic field of a single coil pair with simulation results to assess field uniformity and model accuracy, showing good agreement with a 1.7% deviation of the central field and an RMSE of 0.79 µT across the full axial scan. Ongoing work focuses on characterizing the magnetic field of the full cage, developing a coil-driving electrical system for controlled and repeatable magnetic field generation, and exploring practical methods for low-cost, reproducible magnetic field mapping.
Document Type
Event
Included in
Aug 24th, 12:00 AM
Design and Development of a Miniaturized Helmholtz Cage for CubeSat ADCS Testing
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
- Magnetic field generation and compensation are essential for laboratory testing of an attitude determination and control system (ADCS) for small satellites. Since commercial magnetic test facilities are often unavailable or impractical for university laboratories, such setups are typically developed in-house. A controlled magnetic environment allows for reliable magnetometer characterization, magnetorquer testing, and evaluation of attitude control algorithms, enabling repeatable ADCS experiments under well-defined conditions.
- At our university, a CubeSat-class ADCS is being developed from the ground up by students, with a focus on hands on hardware development and experimental validation. The current ADCS prototype includes magnetic sensors, custom-developed magnetorquers, and reaction wheels, all configured for three-axis operation. To support experimental evaluation, a three-degree-of-freedom air-bearing testbed was designed and built on-site, providing full rotational freedom for a 1U CubeSat platform, and forming the basis for integrated laboratory testing.
- Building on the developed ADCS prototype and air-bearing testbed, we focused on the design and development of a Helmholtz cage. To inform our approach, we reviewed over twenty university-developed Helmholtz cage systems to identify common design approaches, mechanical configurations, power electronics solutions, and experimental validation methods. These findings guided the design priorities of our setup, focusing on practicality, accessibility, and compatibility with the existing test infrastructure. In this work, we present the initial design and early experimental development of a Helmholtz cage intended for CubeSat ADCS testing. The work includes numerical magnetic field simulations of a square coil configuration to define a usable test volume suitable for 1U and 2U CubeSats. These simulations are complemented by a full 3D CAD model of the proposed system, which supports mechanical design and integration. Initial experiments compared the measured magnetic field of a single coil pair with simulation results to assess field uniformity and model accuracy, showing good agreement with a 1.7% deviation of the central field and an RMSE of 0.79 µT across the full axial scan. Ongoing work focuses on characterizing the magnetic field of the full cage, developing a coil-driving electrical system for controlled and repeatable magnetic field generation, and exploring practical methods for low-cost, reproducible magnetic field mapping.
