On-ground experimental verification of magnetic attitude control for nanosatellites

For reliable verification of attitude determination and control systems, ground-based hardware-in-the-loop simulations are strongly desirable. To this end, a Three-Degrees of Freedom Dynamic Testbed for CubeSats has been developed at the University of Bologna. In this paper, the development of a platform for 1U CubeSats testing is described. Within the facility, disturbance-free environment is guaranteed and a magnetic field is generated by a Helmholtz cage to enable experimental verification of magnetic attitude control systems. A COTS CubeSat mockup is integrated and employed to test detumbling, spin-axis pointing and three-axis attitude control laws relying on magnetorquers only. The experimental results show the facility capabilities in highly demanding magnetic attitude control scenarios.