Realization the Design and Development of Miniature Reaction Wheel Brushless DC Motor and Control Electronics for Attitude Control Application

Abstract

This paper presents the design and performance analysis of a miniature reaction wheel brushless dc motor and drive system. The miniature reaction wheel is a vital primary actuator and balancing system applicable for micro, nano, and cube satellite attitude control systems. The novel feature of this work is the development of a cogging free brushless dc motor and bipolar drives system with a digital controller incorporating the speed and torque control. In the ironless stator assembly to three sets of windings physically such that each set behaves as 3 phase windings.  The armature stator assembly and permanent magnet rotor assembly conforming to stator redundancy is designed. The electrical and magnetic loadings are performed analytically for the desired torque and speed of the motor. Primary design of motor is modeled in finite element electromagnetic software for air gap flux density analysis, magnetic power analysis and magnet return ring. Based on the result analysis, prototype model of miniature reaction wheel brushless dc motor is fabricated and tested for different reaction torque methods and have the features of high reaction torque, less power consumption, minimization of commutation torque ripple, low cost and cogging free operation.

Keywords-miniature reaction wheel  brushless dc motorl; attitude control;ironless stator;digital controller; finite element analysis; reaction torque.