Sensor Faults Detection and Diagnosis in Microsatellite Attitude Determination System

Abstract

This paper introduces a new faults detection and diagnosis (FDD) subsystem for microsatellite attitude determination systems which use one three-dimensional rate gyro and two vector sensors. This FDD subsystem includes two filters for residual generations, hypothesis tests for fault detections and a reference logic table for fault isolations and fault recovery. This automatic FDD subsystem helps to enhance the automatic ability of attitude determination flight software and to reduce the dependence on ground support. The scheme developed in this paper resolves the problem of the heavy and complex calculations during residual generation parts and therefore the delay in isolation process is also reduced. The numerical simulations for TSUBAME, a demonstration microsatellite of Tokyo Institute of Technology, are conducted and analyzed to demonstrate the working of this FDD subsystem.