Multiagent Attitude Control System for Satellites Based in Momentum Wheels and Event-Driven Synchronization

Abstract

Attitude control is a requirement always present in spacecraft design. Several kinds of actuators exist to accomplish this control, being momentum wheels one of the most employed. Usually satellites carry redundant momentum wheels to handle any possible single failure, but the controller remains as a single centralized element, posing problems in case of failures. In this work a decentralized agent-based event-driven algorithm for attitude control is presented as a possible solution. Several agents based in momentum wheels will interact among them to accomplish the satellite control. A simulation environment has been developed to analyze the behavior of this architecture. This environment has been made available through the web page http://www.dia.uned.es.